Youga making progress

Charlton's head physiotherapist Steve Allen believes that Kelly Youga is 'making progress' in his bid to return to action following the knee injury the left-back suffered last November.

Kelly Youga suffered a knee injury last November

Youga has been sidelined since hobbling off in the early stages of a game against Bristol Rovers at The Valley, although he did attempt a reserve-team comeback in March against Chelsea.

What had seemed an innocuous injury proved to be a posterior cruciate ligament problem - but Allen believes there is now light at the end of the tunnel for Youga, who made 18 appearances for the Addicks last term.

Allen told the official website: "Kelly's making progress after the difficult injury he sustained during the game against Rovers on November 24th when he cleared the ball forcibly and hit the thigh of an opponent.

"Following this, he's had a number of MRI scans and the original diagnosis was that he'd damaged the posterior cruciate ligament in his knee.

"Kelly still had some discomfort so went back to France for an intense three-month period of strengthening work, which he undertook over the summer. He came back for pre-season training and had only a 10 per cent deficit in strength on the Cybex machine, which is a machine which measures the strength of quads and hamstrings.

"He then saw a consultant over here who was of the opinion that he doesn't need surgery on his knee. A doctor over in France was of the same opinion."

Continued Allen: "The plan was that he would start running, but when he began he had a little bit of a limp. We're hoping that's something which is called a habitual limp, which has just developed over time rather than anything else."

As a result, Youga visited a sports rehabilitation clinic in Chiswick, with Allen stating: "He had a three-dimensional biomechanical analysis and an ultrasound scan, which showed some inflammation in his knee.

"He also had a kinematic analysis, which is a video analysis of his running gait. It showed he had a protective antalgic gait on the left side.

"Following this, the proposed management strategy was to decrease inflammation on the inside of his knee, re-educate his hopping motion and increase the strength further in his knee extensions and pelvic stabilisers.

"He was told to do that for two weeks. We go back on Friday for a further video analysis and another ultrasound."

Added Allen: "Kelly has been in no pain of late. Although I don't want to put a timescale on it, he feels good so hopefully we're getting somewhere and he'll be back in training soon. If he doesn't, we'll have to re-evaluate and see where we go from there."

The left-back slot was a problematic one for Charlton last term with Youga, Grant Basey and then-loanee Johnnie Jackson all suffering serious injuries.

Meanwhile, Allen has revealed that Christian Dailly is struggling with a slight foot injury picked up in the 1-0 pre-season friendly loss at Barnet last weekend.

Added Allen: "Christian has developed pain in the outside of his foot. We X-rayed it and that was all clear. It's being double checked by a foot and ankle specialist just to make sure that there's no evidence of a stress fracture. But the first X-ray indicates it isn't."