Derby County insider details £600k boost and provides positive injury update ahead of Sunderland game
The latest on injuries and transfers at Derby County ahead of the game against Sunderland this week
Sunderland play Derby County at Pride Park in the Championship on Tuesday evening.
The Black Cats are currently pushing for promotion back to the Premier League for the first time since suffering relegation in 2017 while Derby County are hoping to stay in the division under Paul Warne.
Ahead of the game, The Echo caught up with BBC Derby’s Dominic Dietrich, with the Rams insider detailing how Warne’s squad is looking in terms of injuries after the signing of Lars-Jorgen Salvesen.
The full chat with Dom is available on The Roar Podcast feed. Just search for us on Google or wherever you find your podcasts.
How are Derby County shaping up in terms of injuries?
DD: “Eiran Cashin and Ryan Nyambe will be back. Nat Phillips, the centre-half, has come into the team whilst Eiran Cashin has been out. He picked up a knock on Tuesday, so he's going to be touch and go for Saturday. He's having treatment on an issue at the moment, so whether he'll be back in time, that'll be one to watch. (Ended up missing the game against Watford). David Ozoh, the midfielder on loan from Crystal Palace, is due to start training again on Monday, so I imagine Tuesday will be far too soon for him.
“And then it's the new striker, Salvesen, whether he's going to be available to make a debut, a cameo performance on Saturday and potentially more against Sunderland on Tuesday, we'll have to wait and see. (The striker didn’t end up making the squad against Watford). “But, yeah, other than that, they're looking in good nick and I think Paul Warne is relieved to have quite a few of his players back.”
Tell us about Derby County’s new signing...
DD: “Lars-Jorgen Salvesen from Viking FK in Norway. He is 28 years old, he's played his whole career out in Norway and Derby, from what we understand, paid £800,000 for him, which hasn't been the case for a long time. Derby have been essentially going abroad for a lot of their signings recently due to the lack of value for money. I know they were in for Richard Kone at Wycombe, but that was too much.
“So they've had to look overseas and try and find this one out and this has been a deal that's been going on for the last couple of weeks. But he is a big man, six foot one, long, long locks, as you'd imagine. Everyone, of course, compared him to Erling Haaland, unfairly. But he is a man that's going to head it.
“Honestly, Paul Warne, for two and a half years, has been praying for a man who can come in, head the ball, have a bit of physical presence at the top end of the pitch, and looks like he's finally got him. And he knows where the net is, I think he scored 12 goals in his last season. But the issue is the Norwegian campaign ended on December 1st. So he's very much in his pre-season right now. So that's going to be interesting to see how he settles in.”