Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Paul Lambert has said that it would be "dangerous" to start January signing Ben Marshall against Newcastle United tomorrow.
The 25-year-old completed a switch to Molineux from Blackburn Rovers on deadline day after a protracted transfer saga that saw him frozen out by Rovers boss Owen Coyle.
Marshall earned his debut in the final 10 minutes of Wolves' 2-1 loss at Burton Albion last weekend, but Lambert thinks that it is still too soon to name him in his starting XI.
"We had a good chat this morning. I still think he's short fitness-wise and he agrees," Lambert told the Express & Star.
"He hadn't trained with Blackburn, he'd been doing little things on his own, which is never the same. You can't train on your own in a gym and expect to be playing high level football for 90 minutes.
"He feels it himself, being short of match fitness. It's dangerous for him if we played him right from the beginning. We're going to have to build him up because he's had two and a bit weeks of doing nothing. It's dangerous with the level we train at and the level we play."
Marshall previously worked under Lambert during his tenure as Rovers boss in the 2015-16 season.
Neil Wilkes
