Walsall 'not in control' of Kanu future - Sadler

Walsall boss Mat Sadler has said the club have plans for the January transfer window just in case in-form striker Daniel Kanu is recalled by parent club Charlton Athletic.

The 21-year-old scored for the 11th time in 19 appearances this season with a stunning finish in the 1-1 draw with Shrewsbury Town on Saturday.

It was the fifth game running that Kanu has found the net for the League One leaders and his eighth goal in his past 10 matches.

The Sierra Leone international joined Walsall on a season-long loan in the summer, having scored seven goals in 59 league appearances for the Addicks, with the Addicks holding a recall clause in January as part of the agreement.

The Saddlers will be wary of what the new year holds having lost their leading scorers in each of the last three January windows, with Danny Johnson (Mansfield), Freddie Draper (Lincoln) and Nathan Lowe (Stoke) all recalled after successful half-season spells.

"We're looking after their player well, they [Charlton] are very, very pleased with how we're looking after their player," Sadler told BBC Radio WM,

"And we'll keep looking after him because he's a fantastic kid and we'll keep doing what's right for the football club along with it.

"We're not in control of everything because we never are, or as we aren't in this situation, but, again, we're doing a good job by the parent club at the moment and hopefully that continues."

Kanu has contributed nine of Walsall's 30 league goals this term as the club look to go one better than last season's play-off final defeat.

The Saddlers were 12 points clear at the top when Lowe returned to the Potters in January after scoring 18 goals.

But the club then won just four of their final 22 league games to miss out on automatic promotion by a point.

When asked if the club had a plan to cover all scenarios in Kanu's future, Sadler added: "Yes, of course we do.

"We're working very hard to strengthen the squad in general, not just about the areas we want to strengthen, not just about one person in particular, but this is the game.

"We give everything to loan players when they come to the club. We're a good destination for people to bring their loan players to.

"We want to be a place where strikers and attackers will come because they know we're going to play a certain way and they're going to get loads of chances."