Coventry City's home grown defender Jordan Clarke has been tipped by academy boss Gregor Rioch to break into the first team, possibly before the end of this season.
the 18 year old who signed a professional contract with the Sky Blues last year, has played in the first team six times and made three substitute appearances earlier in the season, but an ankle injury requiring surgery halted his progress.
Rioch explained, “He has come back from his ankle op in great condition and really hungry to get going again. He has played a couple of games in the Under 18s, where I have played him at centre-back to ease him in a bit and I expect that any time in the next couple of weeks he will be knocking on the manager’s door to let him know he is ready for action. I am pleased to see him back.”
Clarke played the full 90 minutes at Norwich last week in the 2-2 draw in the under 18's game. Clarke was at fault for Norwich's opening goal in the eighth minute when he allowed the Norwich striker to get the wrong side of him and who had a shot that was deflected off another Coventry player to loop over City goalkeeper Michael Quirke.
Rioch defended Clarke saying, “Jordan had an otherwise excellent game again and we will put him back out to right-back in the coming games to stretch his lungs out a bit.”
The under 18's went two down inside 25 minutes when Cyrus Christie conceded a penalty.
Rioch reflected, “We took 40 minutes to find our feet,The lads created a couple of chances before half time and then finished strongly in the last ten minutes of the game.”