Charlton Athletic may join Derby County, Portsmouth and others in January race after Miles Leaburn update: View | OneFootball

Charlton Athletic suffered a major injury blow in their win over Cheltenham Town last weekend.

Alfie May scored a brace against his former side to secure the three points but his strike partner was forced off in the first half.

Miles Leaburn was just getting into the swing of things and now Charlton have confirmed that he will be out of action for the majority of the rest of the season.

Here is what this means for the Addicks with the January transfer window edging ever closer.

The extent of Leaburn’s injury

With 38 minutes on the clock on Tuesday 28th November, Serbian Slobodan Tedic entered the game earlier than expected, in the place of the stricken Miles Leaburn.

The latter has since had surgery on the injured hamstring and Charlton confirmed on their club website that he is “expected to miss up to five months”.

As a teenager last season, Leaburn scored 12 goals and assisted two more from 1818 minutes of League One football, deservedly garnering a lot of attention as a result.

It wasn’t too long ago that Chelsea and Brentford were both interested in bringing him across London to their respective clubs, something which will now be on the back-burner evidently.

Thus far in 2023/24, the 20-year-old had four goals to his name in all competitions, the third most at Charlton.

Former Aston Villa youngster Corey Blackett-Taylor is one of those above him with six goals and five assists whilst Alfie May comfortably leads the team, and the whole league as it goes, with 14 (16 in all comps).

May has been finding the back of the net with ease since joining from Cheltenham whilst Blackett-Taylor scored twice in November, against Sutton United in the cup and then in the 1-1 draw away at Carlisle United.

How will Charlton approach the January window?

Alfie May’s form becomes all the more important for Michael Appleton’s side given the injury that Leaburn has sustained.

As the earlier table shows, names such as Daniel Kanu, Tyreece Campbell, and Chuks Aneke have also chipped in here and there but nowhere near the levels of May.

This might well mean that the Addicks become the latest League One club looking for a striker when the January transfer window rolls around.

Also in the same boat are Derby County and Portsmouth to name just a couple.

Given that Pompey are sitting on top of the standings in the third tier and that the Rams are blessed with a plethora of options, this may sound strange.

Colby Bishop is Portsmouth’s top scorer with 11 though and the likes of Tino Anjorin and Gavin Whyte are yet to really contribute.

Derby have a very impressive trio of scorers at the top of their charts in the form of James Collins, Martyn Waghorn, and Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, yet they are in 6th and have a gap of nine points between themselves and top spot.

Neither club is known for resting on their laurels, so adding another attacking option could well be the ploy for this duo as well as Barnsley and Blackpool potentially, meaning that Charlton will be faced with competition for any targets.