Town central defender Damien Delaney will be out of action for three months after suffering a serious thigh injury in training on Friday. The Irishman has undergone two operations for what initially appeared to be a dead leg.
Manager Roy Keane says Delaney continued training and the seriousness of the situation was only realised at the end of the session: ”Damien picked up a dead leg in training on Friday, had an operation on Friday afternoon and had another operation today. It’s a serious injury, he’ll probably be out for three months.
"He’s a very lucky boy, it’s a really nasty injury. He was very lucky our medical care got him to hospital and they operated very quickly and we believe the surgery went very well. But it’s a big blow for us.”
Keane says the Blues suffered no further injury problems in the PSV match, which he felt was a useful run-out: "In terms of a fitness exercise, we’ve done a lot of running. It was good, I really enjoyed it. We’ve a long way to go before we can match a team like PSV. It was a very good workout.”
Town’s only other injury problem at present is Colin Healy, who missed the trip with a hamstring problem. Skipper Jon Walters is not expected to be out ill for too much longer.