Canada striker back in thoughts after late call for Orient trip

Marcus Haber will re-enter the manager’s thoughts after getting a full week of training and a reserve game under his belt. The 25-year-old Canadian recently returned from International duty and because of all the training and travelling involved, boss Steve Davis was eager to give his target-man a rest.

He was not supposed to travel to London last weekend to face Leyton Orient, but answered an SOS call on the eve of the match to replace the injured Febian Brandy. The then on-loan Brandy suffered a calf strain during Friday’s final training session at Luton. 

Haber travelled south to take his place on the substitutes’ bench and his late introduction saw him create a late chance for Jamie Ness that if he had not been denied from close range by Adam Legzdins would have made the scoreline 3-2 in the closing stages.

Steve told crewealex.net: “We will have a fully fit Marcus available. He was able to play 90 minutes and extra-time at Newcastle on Monday for the development squad. We just felt it was beneficial for him to get a game under his belt.

“He returned from Panama in the earlier hours and we didn’t expect him to travel with us to London, but when Febian got injured on Friday morning we put a call in for him to come down. Having that option on the bench was better than having no forwards on the bench.

“Marcus played 12 minutes for Canada over the 12 days he was away and we didn’t have time to assess him because we travelled down to Luton early on Friday morning to train down there.

“We will assess how he is this week. I’m sure he is fine and he will be in our plans.”