Chesterfield striker Tom Denton set for loan spell after long injury lay-off

The 31-year-old scored nine goals in 15 league games last season before suffering a knee injury in January which required an operation.

‘Dents’ missed the rest of the campaign but he is set to join up with the squad for pre-season training.

The plan is to then get the forward some game time on loan elsewhere to help him get his sharpness back before returning to the Blues.

“It is a big challenge this year because everybody is aware of us now,” manager James Rowe explained. “Teams coming to the Technique will set up differently than what they have done in the past.

“We need to play in various ways and the only way to do that is to have different types of players who can have different types of things on the pitch.

“That is why I am really looking forward to Tom Denton coming back from injury because he offers us something completely different to any other player in the squad.

“Tom has worked really hard, his body fat is down to the best it has been ever, I believe, and he is looking in really good shape.”

Denton is ahead of schedule, Rowe says, and he will join in with some running on the first day of pre-season training.

“He can come back into contact (training) probably in the next three or four weeks which will mean that he is available for the last few friendlies and then he will need a loan to get his sharpness and then hopefully he is a back in a Chesterfield shirt in the right frame of mind with the confidence he needs to kick-on,” Rowe told the DT.

“We haven’t got an under-23s or reserves that would give him what he needs. It would be foolish of me just to chuck him straight back in after one or two friendlies after such a long lay-off.

“We need to protect him first, make sure he is up to speed, and then he comes into the fold.”