Defender misses out as U's head for Gigg Lane
Oxford United look like being without Aaron Martin for the rest of the season after the defender ruptured his Achilles during Tuesday night’s FA Cup win over Macclesfield. Martin appeared to slip as he cleared the ball and was stretchered off and taken to hospital. Scans taken today will reveal the true extent of the injury but Michael Appleton told Yellow Player HD that he believes the former Coventry centre-half will be out for a while:
“He is going for a scan today but that is just to back up what the medical team think, which is a full rupture of his Achilles, identical to the injury that Wes Thomas suffered. So that looks as though his season is done” Michael told Yellow Player HD.” He has just got back to where we knew he could be and he was looking very good, but now we are down to bare bones a little bit and it’s something we have to look at.”
Martin joins Wes Thomas, Christian Ribeiro and Liam Sercombe on the long-term injured list while Joe Skarz is likely to miss the trip to Bury with a troublesome back problem.
“Joe is still struggling a bit” Michael admitted. “We won’t risk him if it’s not right, especially because we have nine days before the next game after Saturday to get him right. But there are one or two others with a few issues we are mindful but if we can get through this game then we know we have a decent little break before the big game at home to Northampton on Boxing Day.”
Bury are on a dreadful run of 11 defeats in a row in the league and 15 games in total without a win. Which has Michael on his guard:
“It’s very difficult because you go there knowing that they are going to win at some stage. Every Manager must say the same thing: just make sure it’s not us and that they go another week. I’ll be no different and will be reminding the players that we have to take advantage of their bad run, get in and amongst it and make sure the first 20 minutes takes care of itself. I can talk until I am blue in the face but ultimately the players have to be professional and approach it correctly.
“Bury are going to be hurting and will try everything in the book to try and unsettle us. I am sure their home support will be right behind them. When you get stuck on a run like they have been on the fans just want that first win or even a draw to get behind. Hopefully we do our jobs and keep our own good run going.”
See the full interview plus the thoughts of skipper John Lundstram in Yellow Player HD where you can hear the whole game LIVE