Jason Euell praised the “excellent” Ahmed Kashi after the Charlton midfielder returned to competitive action for the U21s on Monday.

Kashi has missed most of the season with an Achilles injury he sustained back in September.

The Algerian international has made substantial progress in recent weeks, however, by first returning to training and now turning out for the in-form U21 side.

Kashi played 45 minutes as Euell’s team beat Leeds United 1-0 at the Valley, and the coach was delighted with the 27-year-old’s impact.

He told cafc.co.uk: “He offered something different to what we have.

“He’s a very good player, he wanted to get on the ball and what pleased me more was the way that he applied himself in the game.

“He was competitive, he was helping to organise our younger players, which is what I want them to do for themselves.

“He really approached the game in the right way, even though it was only his first one in many, many months.”

Euell, 39, also confirmed that Kashi came through the outing unscathed.

“He was excellent and I was pleased that he could contribute to Monday’s result and came through unscathed,” he added.

“It could have been a 45 minutes from someone that has been out for a long period of time just thinking about getting through the half, but you saw with him that he wanted to go all out and that was very pleasing.”

While Charlton’s first-team fixtures against Derby and Bolton are likely to arrive too soon for Kashi, it is understood that he could feature against Brighton on April 23.

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