Mark Robins revealed that Jake Clarke-Salter may well have kicked his last ball for Coventry City this season.
The defender was forced off midway through the first half against Derby County before the international break and the diagnosis hasn’t been positive for Jake and the Sky Blues.
Robins told the press that he believes that could Clarke-Salter’s season over with the end of the campaign coming too soon for Jake to recover in time for.
“Well, he’s going to be out for a while, whether that’s his season finished or not remains to be seen. I have not had the update from his scan officially yet but it’s possibly beyond him to see him again this season.” Robins said.
“It was a real blow in fairness because the soft tissue injuries that have crept in, not just for us but for everybody, is a consequence of the amount of games and training and trying to push each other all the time.
“I think with Jake it’s a particularly big tear but he will recover fully. It’s just the time it takes for that to happen, which is a big, big blow for both him and us because for me, he’s been excellent for us this season and a made a big, big difference to us this season. Yes, it’s certainly something that’s regretfully the circumstances.”
In Clarke-Salter’s absence, Jake Bidwell and Ben Sheaf slotted in at centre-back for the afternoon at Pride Park.
However, there is one positive to come out of the international break, as Michael Rose has recovered from Covid-19 and is back in contention and Kyle McFadzean isn’t too far away from a return.
“We have had illness and injury and with training we have tried to give them time off to recover and repair, mentally and physically, but we have still got a fair amount of injury.
“Rosey is training so we will just run the rule past people and while we finish the prep off we just have to make sure the players get through the session and then I can look at a more definitive squad for tomorrow.
“But, at the moment the plates are still spinning. Fadz is a lot closer and hopefully he won’t be too long. But he hasn’t started training yet so that rules him out for tomorrow, but he won’t be too far away.
“We have just got to look at what we have got after training today when I will be able to say what we have got, whether X. Y and Z are available or otherwise.
“But whatever, we will put a team out like we did against Derby County last time out where we were filling holes and plugging gaps, and I thought it was a really god performance in those circumstances and we were really disappointed not to bring three points back.”
On another positive note, long-term absentees, Liam Kelly and Josh Eccles are making positive strides in their return to fitness.
When asked if they will feature before the end of the season, Robins told how he was hopeful to see them back out on the pitch soon.
“I think potentially yes. They’re moving in the right direction and they’re not too far away.
“We will have them back on the grass soon and that can only be a good thing, so the sooner the better for me, but they have to be right to go.”