Forest Green Rovers have moved into the loan market to address an unusual shortage of attacking options, bringing in Bristol Rovers striker Mees Rijks on a three-month deal.
The arrival follows a knee injury to Ricardo Rees and international call-ups for D’Mani Mellor and Kairo Mitchell. Manager Robbie Savage said the circumstances meant Rijks would be the club’s only recognised centre-forward from Saturday, although José Márquez is expected to remain with Forest Green until January after missing a match for loan club Worthing with concussion.
Rijks brought in after Forest Green lose striking options
Rijks joined Forest Green at The New Lawn after the club acted quickly following the injury and international absences. Savage said a relationship with Bristol Rovers, strengthened by a behind-closed-doors bounce game, helped the transfer happen.
“After Saturday, we’ve had no recognised strikers at the football club,”
Although the source identifies Rijks as a 23-year-old Dutch striker, it also describes his route through professional football. He went from Utrecht to Valerenga, where he scored goals, before moving to Bristol Rovers. Savage said Forest Green had seen him twice and believed he brought qualities the existing squad needed.
The manager described Rijks as a forward who can hold the ball, run the channels and play with an aggressive edge. He said the signing was not simply another addition to the squad but a response to a specific shortage created by the combination of Rees’s injury and the international programme.
Savage said Forest Green already had “brilliant centre forwards” in Mellor, Mitchell and Rees, but none of those three would be available in the immediate period: Rees because of his knee injury, and Mellor and Mitchell because they were representing their countries.
“So as from Saturday, Mees (Rijks) will be our only centre forward at the football club.”
Rees faces lengthy recovery
Rees suffered the injury during Tuesday night’s draw at Carlisle, just as he had begun to regain momentum. Savage said the forward had scored three goals and supplied three assists, but that his time at Forest Green had been repeatedly interrupted since he joined the club.
According to Savage’s account, Rees began strongly before being sent off and missing three matches. He then injured his ankle at Gateshead and spent six weeks out. He returned in time for the play-offs but was not fully right, while a calf problem during the summer meant he missed the start of the current season and played only one or two pre-season matches.
The latest setback came after what Savage described as an innocuous fall on Rees’s knee. The ligament has ruptured, the knee is expected to be braced for five months and no operation is planned. The expected period on the sidelines is five to seven months.
“To lose him is a huge blow,”
Savage said Rees’s determination to play for Forest Green had been clear despite the previous injuries. He added that the striker was a strong character and would return.
International absences add to selection problems
Forest Green’s list of unavailable players extends beyond the recognised strikers. Filozofe Mabete is set to represent DR Congo Under-23s, joining Liverpool youngster Kyle Kelly, who is with Saint Kitts and Nevis, along with Mitchell and Mellor on international duty.
West Ham loanee Preston Fearon is on standby for England Under-20s after the weekend. Savage said the effect of the call-ups could be significant when considered alongside the club’s squad structure.
He said Forest Green were looking to work with a squad of 25 and had used 25 players during the season. He also referred to younger players, including Stevie Walsh and Thomas Conteh, who is on loan, as examples of players who may still be developing or may not feature regularly.
Savage said that if eight players were taken out of a squad of 25 during the international period, Forest Green could be left without 17 players. The club’s immediate planning will therefore depend not only on Rijks’s arrival but also on how many players are available for each individual fixture.
Club considers postponing three fixtures
Forest Green has been advised that it can consider postponing matches individually rather than making one collective decision about all three games. The fixtures in question are Sutton away, Wealdstone at home and Scunthorpe away.
Savage said the club would have seven days to call off a match as the away team and five days to do so as the home team. That means the decision will be made separately for each fixture, rather than automatically applying to the full run of three matches.
He said he had spoken about the situation with Dale Vince, Asif Rehmanwala and Mark Bowen. The group planned to review the position after Forest Green’s match against Boston United, with the Sutton fixture the first postponement decision to be considered.
The manager said Forest Green would assess its position match by match. If the club believed it did not have the capability to give the best possible account of itself, he said, cancelling a game remained an option.
Savage defends recruitment and rebuild
The decision to sign Rijks comes during a wider restructuring of the Forest Green squad. Savage said outside observers had questioned the club’s recruitment activity, but argued that the current move was necessary because of the shortage of available forwards.
He said the club had brought in about 40 players and moved on more than 30 during the previous 15 months. Savage also said Forest Green had reduced its wage structure and average age, while recruiting players who could develop and protect the club’s future as assets.
The manager said the aim was to build a squad of 25 rather than a group of 28 or 29 containing players who were unlikely to play. The approach included development players and younger recruits who might not yet be ready for regular first-team football.
He also believes the team is beginning to find greater consistency. Forest Green had used virtually the same team for the previous three matches and probably four in a row, although Savage said the side had not yet fully clicked. His view was that the club was close to finding that level, with the Rijks deal intended to provide cover during a period when injuries and international duty have left the attack particularly thin.
