Lee Bowyer expects bids to come in for Lyle Taylor in January.

Despite the Charlton forward only returning to action on Saturday after suffering a knee injury at the end of August, the Addicks boss feels there will be a host of clubs fighting for his signature when the transfer window opens next month.

Taylor, 29, who scored five goals at the start of the season before picking up an injury while on international duty, was the subject of multiple bids in the summer, namely Brentford who are believed to have offered £4million for his services.

“The question is if we can keep him, not if clubs will come in for him,” Bowyer said.

“Clubs all know what he can do before the start of this season.

“He’s showed he can score goals in this division and that’s what teams want.

“They tried to take him before he even proved it.

“Do I think clubs will come in for him? 1 million percent yes.

“It was the same for Karlan Grant last season, if a Premier League club comes in it’s even more difficult, it’s the nature of the game.”

The club are awaiting the EFL’s decision whether the club can be taken over by East Street Investments, a decision that could be key to Bowyer as they’ve made it their priority of securing deals for Taylor and Bowyer if they get the green light.

Managing His Injury

Taylor played the second half in the 1-0 defeat at Middlesbrough on Saturday after 14 weeks out, and came off the bench in Tuesday night’s late defeat to Huddersfield with 20 minutes to go, a decision Bowyer admits will have a huge bearing on his availability for the Addicks next fixture, Friday night’s home tie against Hull.

“No one wants Lyle to start more than me, I can assure you,” he said.

“But I have to be careful, if I brought him on at half time he could pull up, and the advice I’ve been given is I can’t start him on Friday.

“If he had no minutes tonight I could’ve started him Friday, which is why I took so long to bring him on.

“Lyle’s been out 14 weeks, it should’ve been eight to ten, we can’t just throw him in.

“The only good thing is after Friday we have eight days rest, then he can start no excuses.

“He won’t be fully fit and it’ll take him a while to get him back to where he was.

“He was on fire at the start of the season.”