Season over for Cobblers striker Purcell
Tadhg Purcell's Cobblers season is over.
The striker was stretchered off after 20 minutes of last weekend's 1-1 draw with Wycombe Wanderers, and scans have confirmed he has suffered two injuries to his right knee.
As well as a ruptured cruciate ligament, Purcell has also damaged a lateral ligament, which means he will not play again this term.
"It's bad news on Tadhg, he's going to be out for the rest of the season," confirmed manager Ian Sampson. "He's ruptured his cruciate ligament and he's damaged his lateral ligament too. At first we didn't think it was too serious because it was a collision injury but the scans have shown us that it's quite a bad one.
"It's quite a devastating injury for the boy and it's a massive blow for me and this football club as well.
"He was starting to train better and he had started a couple of games for us and this injury will be devastating for the lad.
"He led the line really well at Reading and we were very pleased with him in that game."
The injury news has all been bad for Sampson this week, with a scan also confirming Ryan Gilligan will need an operation on his ankle injury that will keep him out for three months.
Marcus Hall has also been ruled out for the next month after pulling a hamstring at Hartlepool, and defender Craig Hinton remains on the sick list with an ongoing knee problem.
"Ryan Gilligan has got to have an operation on his ankle as well," confirmed Sampson, who does have right-back John Johnson available for tomorrow's npower League Two game at Aldershot.
"He's got some extra bone growth on his ankle and it's causing him a lot of discomfort.
"It's become unbearable and he's got to have it dealt with. I don't think the actual operation takes that long, it's more the recovery.
"That stretches an already thin squad but I think I've got enough midfielders to cover it. It might put an extra burden on them a little bit, which I think we saw on Tuesday night, but a striker is the priority."
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Friday 10 February 2012
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