Fresh blow rules star out of Leeds United v Coventry City clash as player faces significant time out
Mark Robins has provided the latest Coventry team news ahead of Saturday’s clash against Leeds at Elland Road.
Coventry City have been rocked by a big injury blow ahead of Saturday’s Championship trip to Leeds United with a star man ruled out for a significant amount of time.
Experienced Sky Blues midfielder Jamie Allen suffered a knee injury in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at home to Swansea City in which he was forced off in the 24th minute.
The 29-year-old later left in a leg brace with the aid of crutches and boss Mark Robins has now confirmed that Allen has suffered a medial collateral ligament injury.
Speaking at his pre-match press conference and as quoted by CoventryLive, Robins said: “Jamie has a medial collateral ligament injury and will be out for a significant amount of time, probably going to be eight to ten weeks. It’s a setback for Jamie as well as us.
“He’s been through quite a torrid 12 months with various issues, and he doesn’t do anything by halves. If he has an issue, it’s an issue.”
Robins added: “I didn’t think it was an ACL, I thought it was what it is, although they are not great injuries anyway. They are really painful, knee ligament injuries, and the fact that he tried to carry on as well, tried to flick the ball out and defend while his knee was compromised, so it’s sad.
“It’s a blow but it is something that is part and parcel of football and we have to make sure we get over it. Jamie will do that, he’s done it in the past.”
In better news for the Sky Blues, Robins has revealed that captain Ben Sheaf is close to making a return. Sheaf has yet to feature in the league so far this term but did return from injury as a second-half substitute in the recent Carabao Cup defeat at home to Tottenham.
The midfielder then needed ice on his ankle in the aftermath and was an unused substitute for the weekend’s loss against Swansea.
Robins said: “Ben’s trained all week and with every day that goes by he is closer to the team, so that’s a real positive and has been for a while.
“Last week against Swansea I think we needed to try to get back into the game after going two goals down pretty quickly, and I was trying to make more attacking changes to the game which meant that I decided not to bring him on.
“Although, I could have done with bringing him on to give him some minutes in the game, but I think that he understood that, and we have had this week to do more work with him to get him closer.”