Town boss Mick McCarthy says midfielder Andre Dozzell will learn the extent of his knee injury when he undergoes a scan later today. The 18-year-old collapsed to the ground in evident pain during first-half injury time during Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Birmingham and left the field on a stretcher.
"He’s going for his scan this evening,” McCarthy said. "I went to see him yesterday and took his England cap round. I was going to give it to him after the game on Saturday but that just didn’t feel right at the time when he was lying in the physio’s room.
"He was very, very down about it all. If it’s his cruciate, it could be 12 months out in terms of recovery.
"At his age it’s different, I think if it was a hard-nosed pro of 26 or 27, you’re fully developed. Let’s hope it’s not that, we don’t know, but that’s the fear.”
Dozzell’s father Jason will be there to provide guidance having been a player and suffered injuries himself during his career, but McCarthy says little anyone will be able to say will do much to cheer up the youngster.
"Nothing his dad says or I said yesterday will make him feel any better. I said, ‘You’re 18, if it is 12 months, and let’s hope it’s not, but if is you’ll be 19, you play until 35, so you’ve 16 more years to play.
"But it doesn’t feel like that when you're 18, does it? It’s only when you’re an old man like me and you’ve got a bit of perspective on life that you realise there’s a lot in front of you.
"But he’ll get the best treatment, he’ll get well looked after and whatever it is he’ll be back as quick as he possibly can.”
He added: "There’s a kick in the backside waiting for somebody in football, it appears every single day around every corner.
"You couldn’t envisage that happening having had such a great summer, winning the Euros with the England U19s and then coming back and you could instantly see it had given him something.
"The way he trained and I think the fact that Flynn Downes and Tristan Nydam were in and around the team had an effect as well and I loved it, he just rose to that challenge. So, really sad because he did play well on Saturday.”