East Kilbride Thistle co-boss Alan Paterson says key midfielder Cole McIntyre could be out for up to two months - but his injury ‘isn’t as bad as first feared.’
The versatile ace signed for EK at the start of the season and has been an important player for Paterson’s young squad in West of Scotland Football League Conference C.
But he picked up a knee injury ahead of the Jags’ 3-0 loss to Kilsyth Rangers and before scans were done, an anterior cruciate ligament diagnosis was feared.
While still serious, the results showed a potential dislocation of the knee. Paterson says it’s a blow for the club: “He went for a scan on Thursday morning and at first they thought it was his ACL.
“But the scans have come back and shown that they don’t think it’s as bad as first feared. But they still believe he’s going to be out for a couple of months.
“I don’t know whether he’s dislocated something or he’s jarred his knee. There’s been a lot of interest in Cole and he’s been brilliant. He can play four or five different positions for us.
“When he’s not in your team, you can really miss him. We have four or five injuries at the minute and we haven’t really got a strong enough squad to deal with it.
“We’ll need to bring boys from the u20s squad. It’s now up to other boys to take up the mantle. It’s time for them to grasp the opportunity so someone needs to step up in Cole’s absence.
“We’ve got this injury to Cole and he has probably been our most consistent performer. Cole’s been outstanding this season and we badly missed him on Saturday.”
Liam O’Kane, Franny Kelly and William Sawyers goals all came in the first half for EK’s weekend opponents Kilsyth as a bruising defeat was inflicted upon Paterson’s men.
The Jags boss says he didn’t recognise his team against Kilsyth. They take on third-placed Petershill this Saturday.
Paterson said: “It’s fine margins in football. We didn’t start too badly and we got a goal chopped off. Within 18 minutes of that going in, we were 3-0 down. That’s the poorest I’ve saw the full team.
“We didn’t have any shape and there was no rhythm. It was a lacklustre performance and it’s not something I usually associate with our boys. It looked as if we just ran out of ideas.
“I can’t take too much away from Kilsyth. They killed us in the first half and in the second half it was damage limitation. We went 4-5-1 to stop the rot.
“We said to them at half-time that they weren’t to lose the second half. Go out and play for a bit of pride as is in that first half, they were unrecognisable.
“We huffed and puffed on Saturday but sometimes you just need to hold your hands up and say you got beat by a better side. Kilsyth were good and used the pitch well.”
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