Joey Barton has eased fears around the severity of Aaron Collins’ injury but admits Bristol Rovers’ top scorer is a doubt for Saturday’s League One encounter against Charlton Athletic after suffering bad bruising in a tackle that could well have broken the striker's leg.
Collins left the field in considerable pain after just 10 minutes of Rovers’ 4-1 win Papa Johns Trophy victory over MK Dons on Tuesday night and needed two physios to help him around the perimeter of the pitch and down the tunnel.
The Welshman was recklessly challenged from behind by MK Dons defender Zak Jules with an open goal in front of him and after miscuing his shot wide, as he fell onto the floor was further trampled on with the marks to show for it.
Later in the first half, Rovers also lost midfielder Jordan Rossiter to another injury, as he jarred his knee trying to control a high ball and Barton admitted the Scouser will require a scan on the problem. Antony Evans was left wincing with a hip problem late in the game while Bobby Thomas was also substituted with a tight groin but Barton claimed those two were fine.
“I think it’s a really bad tackle on Aaron and I’m shocked that the referee didn’t bring it back for penalty,” Barton said. “If theirs is a penalty and a sending off I’m not sure ours is a six-month ban from the game, when you see the tackle back - it’s really late, the defender’s got nothing to lose, he knows the player is in an advantageous position and ready to tap the ball in. And he literally just hacks his leg with his studs.
“If you see Azza’s leg, he’s a very fortunate boy that he hasn’t broken his leg. The studs start on the underneath of his knee and finish on the top of his ankle. I’ve said to the referee, ‘You can’t miss that’. We can all see that in real play, Azza’s not a player to stay down. He’s walking off to the sideline and the ref’s still debating it, you just can’t debate the bruise and you can see the studs on the inside of his shin.
“Fortunately, it’s just going to be a sore one; whether it’s going to heal in time for Saturday we’re not sure. We’ll have to assess it but it just looks like bad bruising at the minute.
“Jordy we’ll have to assess; this kind of competition, with Couttsy and the boys on the bench, the last thing we want to do is push a player on. We’re hoping he’s fine. They’re always a bit worrying when there’s nobody near anybody, so we’ll have that assessed, but he’s walking around in the dressing room and hopefully fingers crossed it’s just a bit of a jarred knee.”
Rovers advanced into the quarter-finals of the competition with a professional performance in which John Marquis scored a fine brace and further goals were added by Luca Hoole and Harvey Saunders, moments after he was introduced as a substitute.
Aside from the injuries, the only sour point was the red card of Alfie Kilgour who was dismissed for a last-man foul on Mo Eisa, less than 10 minutes after emerging as a substitute.
“It was a tight contest in the early part; they’ve got a caretaker manager in and the lads were trying to impress him but we knew if we stuck to our level of physicality, it’s difficult in football to turn momentum on and off and they haven’t got a lot of it, hence the reason they’re without a manager at the minute," Barton added.
“We had to step on the gears in the second half and thankfully the lads did that, and gave us that breathing space. The penalty and sending off made us have to sit back a little more but I thought it was a thoroughly professional performance and we’re deservedly into the next round.”
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