Two games into the sequence of six games in 18 days and Watford head into tomorrow’s home match with Cardiff without any fresh injuries, and their two sidelined players set to resume full training with the rest of the squad next week.
Edo Kayembe missed out on the chance to represent DR Congo at the African Cup of Nations due to injury but has returned and his recovery has gone well.
Meanwhile Jeremy Ngakia has not played since the 0-0 draw at Huddersfield on November but, along with Kayembe, he’s back on the training pitch.
“At the minute everything is good, we have no new injuries after the game on Wednesday,” said head coach Valerien Ismael
“Kayembe looks very good in training and so we expect him to be back next week with the team.
“Ngakia could also be back next week with the team. He’ll need time but at least we will have him with us in the training sessions.”
Tomorrow will be the Hornets’ first home Championship game since December 29.
“It’s been four away league games in a row now, and I think we got some good results on the record in that time,” said the Watford boss.
“Now we are looking forward to being back at home in front of our own fans, and especially on a perfect pitch.
“We’re in February and we need to continue to build, show great mentality and put in great performances.”
Yesterday the club made Giorgi Chakvetadze’s loan a permanent transfer to Vicarage Road.
“We fell in love with Giorgi from day one. He is a great player with a great mentality,” Ismael said.
“He is a quality player and I think for him it was an important move now because he will be free in his mind.
“We have seen already in previous games that he is getting more important in our game, with a lot of energy and the freedom he has.
“He now knows Watford is his new home permanently, and we can look forward to the future with him.”
The head coach expects Cardiff to pose most threat from the air tomorrow.
“I think it’s clear it will be a very physical as Cardiff are very strong on set pieces. That’s their main threat and we will have to defend well,” he said.
“But we focus on ourselves and what we need to do in order to put our energy on the pitch, our quality on the ball.
“We have to continue to create chances like we have, but now we have to make sure we become more ruthless.
“I want to reduce the number of chances we need to get a goal, and make sure we can score with our first chance.”
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