Town boss Kieran McKenna has confirmed that winger Wes Burns is out for the season having suffered an ACL injury at Liverpool last week.
The Wales international was subbed in the 29th minute having caught his studs as he made a challenge on Cody Gakpo. The 30-year-old was stretchered off and left Anfield with his foot in a boot and McKenna confirmed that the injury is as signficant as had been feared.
"He's got a torn ACL, so we go for surgery next week, and we know that's a significant period of time in terms of the timeline,” McKenna said.
"He's seen the very best people. It's not a very, very complicated tear, I believe, you can never call an ACL straightforward, but it's an orthodox procedure, and everyone's really positive about the prognosis.
"Of course, he'll miss the rest of the season, and we'll miss him, but he'll be well looked after.”
He added: "It's a blow, no doubt about that. Wes and Chieo Ogbene are pretty unique profiles for us, so to lose both of them in the course of one season and with the qualities that they have being so important to our system, it is a blow. That is what it is.
"But look, we have good depth in the squad and we have other players who can fill the role in different ways and with different qualities.
"We're not going to make any late panicked decisions in the transfer market. If there are players that could really help us and improve us, then we'd like to do so, but we're not going to add numbers just for the sake of cover. We're pretty strong in terms of cover.”
McKenna says the Wales international has taken the setback as well as might have been anticipated.
"He’s OK, he’s dealt with it well, in his stride,” he said. "Of course, he’s disappointed that he’s going to miss the rest of the season and miss a chunk.
"But he’s got a good perspective on it as well. We spoke after the game, there’s no good time and it’s always very unfortunate for the player but he also is one who is really appreciative that three years ago he was playing at Fleetwood and doing a significant injury then is worse than doing it off the back of a couple of promotions and almost 20 games in the Premier League and having made a good contribution this year.
"He’ll be very well looked after, he’ll come back strong, I’ve got no doubts on that. We were all disappointed for him but he’s also got a really healthy perspective on it that over the course of a football career, these things can happen and thankfully he was in a good place when it did happen.”