League One boss resisting temptation with Sunderland loanee after January transfer move

Oxford boss Des Buckingham has suggested that he will manage the minutes of Sunderland loanee Jay Matete carefully as the midfielder pushes for his first start.

Matete suffered the setback during pre-season and wasn’t able to return to training at Sunderland until December when he played in an under-21s match against Arsenal. The 22-year-old was then named on the bench for Sunderland’s Championship fixture at Ipswich on January 13, yet he didn’t feature for the first team last month.

That led to a loan move to Oxford until the end of the season, with Matete coming off the bench in the 89th minute to make his debut during a 1-1 draw against Reading two weeks ago and then again against Blackpool a week later.

Asked how close Matete and other winter signings are to making their first United starts, head coach Buckingham said: “It’s the same with everybody. We’d like to have everyone fit and firing for 90 minutes, but we’ve got a lot back in over the last week into full training. Some we’ve had to manage minutes of, and that’ll be the case over the next two or three games.

“There’s a real temptation to throw these players in from the start and play them for 90 minutes, but we’ve seen that if you get that wrong, you can lose them for a period of time, and that could have a massive impact on what we do. We’ve got a capable squad, but we’ve got to be very smart with the minutes we give to players while we build them up.”