Lincoln City: Morecambe, Crawley Town successes key to overcoming Tyler Walker “challenge” | OneFootball

The key to unlocking Michael Skubala’s latest “challenge” might come thanks to successes in cup competitions.

The key to unlocking Michael Skubala’s latest “challenge” might come thanks to successes in cup competitions.

The Lincoln City head coach admitted that it will be tricky to allow Tyler Walker the minutes that the striker needs to get back up to speed after another stint on the sidelines.

Cup competitions the key to reintegrating Tyler Walker

However, the fact that the Imps have advanced in both the Emirates FA Cup and Vertu Trophy could help ease Walker back into the steady flow of Sky Bet League One games.

The 28-year-old returned to action on Tuesday night, coming on as a second-half substitute in Lincoln’s narrow victory over Morecambe in the Vertu Trophy knockout stages.

Speaking after Lincoln City’s goalless draw to Charlton Athletic, which was the game before the Imps advanced past the Shrimps, Michael Skubala said: “Tyler's close, he needs minutes. The challenge for us is to get him some minutes because we don't have an under-21s program. So, it’s how we get him some minutes and how do we keep building him up.

“He’s missed a lot of football. He’ll probably be in and out a bit, but we need to try and build him up.”

Lincoln have drawn fellow third-tier side Birmingham City in the next round of the FA Cup, after beating non-league Chesham United and Crawley Town to make the famous third round.

They are also into the last 16 of the Vertu Trophy, one of only eight sides left in the northern section of the draw.

No quick fix with Tyler Walker

Skubala was keen to emphasise that there would be no quick fix in reintroducing Walker to fully-fledged football. Instead, it would be a steady increase of minutes.

He said: “He’s been out for so long. It’s not just a case, and I think this is the challenge when people see people like Tyler come back on, they think ‘Oh, he’s just straight back in.’

“It might be 20 minutes here, 10 minutes there. We’ve got to build that back up. It’s never, he’s ready and that’s it because we have three games a week as well.”

Lincoln City’s healthy fixture list a big help

Lincoln City staying in both cups going into 2025 gives them a healthy fixture list to bed Walker back in and get him up to speed.

The Englishman has played just six league games since making his return to Lincolnshire in the summer of 2023.

He appeared in a handful of games in the early part of the 2023/24 season but then succumbed to the latest in a string of injuries that have been dotted throughout his career.

A hamstring problem ruled him out for the vast majority of the season, with Walker only returning on the final day to make a cameo appearance against Portsmouth.

The former Mansfield Town striker was ready to go, before picking up another injury in the summer. It was a cruel blow, just as he was preparing for the current season.

Finally, Tyler Walker is ready to be eased back in at Lincoln City. He was an unused substitute in the aforementioned Crawley and Charlton games, before returning to the field for the first time in over seven months against Morecambe, with just over 20 minutes left.

Now might just be the time for the striker to be embedded back into the Imps team, with plenty of games on the horizon.