Exciting forward Bailey Cadamarteri, 19, is on loan at Lincoln City in EFL League One from parent club Sheffield Wednesday.
Cadamarteri’s Loan Impact at Lincoln
Before being sent out on loan last August the striker was in and out of Wednesday’s squad making 26 appearances over the prior two seasons.
During this period before his loan spell, Cadz won the EFL Young Player of the Month for December 2023 after scoring three goals and grabbing an assist at just 18 years old.
Cadamarteri has made 31 appearances, scoring eight goals in all competitions for Lincoln during his loan spell during an injury-interrupted season.
As much as he has helped The Imps this season, Cadamarteri has not found the back of the net since 9th December 2024 during a 2-0 win over Reading.
Bailey Cadamarteri Injury Ends Season Early
Having already picked up a groin injury during January, the forward missed nine matches until mid-March, coming off the bench against Crawley Town for a brief 10-minute appearance before re-aggravating the problem that had already seen him sidelined prior to this match.
After missing the next two games against Birmingham City and Bristol Rovers, Cadamarteri took to Instagram to let Imps and Wednesday fans know the news from him.
The player posted a collage of photos and a brief message on the evening of March 20th, 2025
The caption reads; “Very disappointed that my season is over early, experienced lots of ups and downs on my first loan but time to get myself right and ready to see what next season brings ~ thank you to the fans and the players for supporting me through this season and i wish the club every bit of success for the future. BC”
Skubala Reacts to Key Injury Setback
Lincoln boss Michael Skubala has also expressed his disappointment with one of his main men picking up a season-ending injury so close to the run-in.
The Imps will want to put this setback behind them with a tough end to the season ahead especially after the lack of good results lately.
Lincoln was in pursuit of the play-offs before Cadamanteri first picked up this injury, and it didn’t seem as if his absence would affect as much as first worried with victories over Northampton Town, 0-1, and Peterborough United, 5-1.
Since this run Lincoln has only picked up three wins over the last 10 matches – including Cadamanteri’s 10-minute cameo vs Crawley, picking up 11 points from 30 available, falling further and further away from the play-off picture.
Speaking to BBC Radio Lincolnshire, Skubala said; “When he had his groin injury before we knew there is a high recurrence rate with that.
“He obviously came back for a little bit but he has felt it again, so we think that could be pretty bad news for him.
“We saw some good moments from him before he got injured and then, unfortunately, he has got injured (again) and that will be it for the season.”
The plan for The Imps towards the end of the season
With Lincoln bringing in experienced ex-Derby County striker James Collins, 34, and relying on their academy duo of Freddie Draper, 20, and Jovon Makama, 21, for the goals, they hope losing Cadamateri to injury won’t be as bad as expected.
Since arriving in January Collins has already scored five goals in 11 games for City.
Draper has been an ever-present feature in The Imps’ squad since the start of the season making 40 appearances, but lacking in contributing towards the goals only hitting the back of the net five times and assisting just once in all competitions.
His fellow academy partner Makama is Lincoln’s top scorer this season with 11 goals in the same amount of games as Draper, but he has contributed with more assists with a total of 6 so far this season.
The striker will continue his rehabilitation at Wednesday’s Middlewood Road training ground to try and be back for their preparations for The Owls’ 2025/26 season.