Shrewsbury Town managing Chelsea star's workload due to injury
Leo Castledine has an 'overuse' injury and Shrewsbury Town must manage his workload - according to Gareth Ainsworth.
Watch more of our videos on ShotsTV.com
and on Freeview 262 or Freely 565
The Chelsea loanee has not featured for Salop since the 1-0 defeat at The Valley against Charlton.
In that match, Castledine came off in the 58th minute and was replaced by Jordan Shipley.
And the youngster, who missed the 1-0 defeat at Stockport and then the dramatic comeback victory against Mansfield last weekend, is going through an 'offload' period at the moment until Town pick the right moment to throw him back in.
"Leo's got sort of an overuse injury," Ainsworth said. "This happens. We've had this before with our young kids when we used to bring them in. Sometimes, the skill is when to take them out as well.
"We all know that when Leo comes back in, he'll be a little firecracker. You know what he's like.
"He's brilliant on that pitch, challenging for everything, running around. And I think that Charlton game was probably him just coming to the end of his little busy period. Let's offload him for a little bit and then get him back in.
"You have to do that with the youngsters. You can't kill them. He's been fantastic.
"I think we have a right and a duty of care to manage him correctly. I think Chelsea will probably help with that. But I've got a fantastic medical team and sports science team - they'll do the right thing by him, and hopefully, we will see him very soon."
Castledine arrived at Shrewsbury at the end of August on a season-long loan deal from his Premier League parent club.
The 19-year-old made an instant impact in Shropshire as he scored on his League One debut against Leyton Orient - a game Town went on to win 3-0 as Tom Bloxham bagged a second-half brace to build on Castledine's opener.
His fast start continued as he scored just two minutes into the clash at Mansfield.
His spell in Shropshire has been a successful one despite not scoring since the end of September - he has made 26 appearances across all competitions in his first exposure to men's football.
Castledine will hope to recover from his injury in time to make the trip with his Town team-mates to Rotherham this weekend as they continue their survival bid.
