‘Incredible’ injury woes continue for Doswell
Paul Doswell cursed Hawks' continued 'incredible' injury misfortunate after seeing new signing Guy Hollis forced off in the 1-1 National League South draw at lowly Billericay.
The centre half, whose deal from league rivals Slough Town was completed in time for him to feature for his new side in Essex, suffered a serious-looking ankle problem just 12 minutes into his debut.
Doswell is now fearful he could be without Hollis, who travelled to hospital for an X-ray after sustaining the injury, for a prolonged period.
The Hawks boss had moved to bring the experienced Slough centrehalf to Westleigh Park with fellow defenders Sam Magri facing months on the sidelines with an ACL injury and Crawley loanee Manny Adebowale returning to the League Two club.
Yet, it appears as though Hollis could be out for weeks at least, while leading scorer Jake McCarthy and suspended Paul Rooney (both ankle) were also injured for the trip to Billericay.
Doswell can scarcely believe this season’s problems.
‘Again, with four players not being available for the first XI (at Billericay) and then losing Guy Hollis within five or 10 minutes - it’s just incredible what’s happening this season,’ he rued.
‘We don’t know (extent of Guy’s injury), it could be broken, if it’s not broken it’s severe ankle ligament damage. It just pretty much sums up our season, to be honest.
‘It looks really bad (Guy’s injury). I think he turned his ankle as he actually landed and the lad has landed on top of his ankle and both sides have absolutely ballooned.
‘It just sums up the season so far (Guy’s injury) with Wally (Alex Wall) being out for 10 weeks, Jamie Collins out for 10 weeks - they’re not short injuries - we’ve had two concussions, Achilles tendinitis with Rooney (Paul) and Jake McCarthy rolled ankle is out - it just goes on and on and on.’
Substitute Tommy Wright, himself suffering with an ankle issue but introduced in place of Hollis, levelled on 78 minutes - a crisp effort whick cancelled out Shaquille Coulhirst's opener eight minutes earlier.
Following Hollis' arrival, the Hawks announced the departure of attacker Abdulai Baggie, above, who made his debut for new club Salisbury in their goalless home draw against Westonsuper-Mare at the weekend.
Doswell explained Baggie’s failure to fit into his preferred 3-5-2 system and inability to reach his highest levels following his summer arrival contributed to his departure.
The Hawks boss said: ‘The system we’re going to play between now and the end of the season - I think we’ll play a 3-5-2 - and Baggie, by his own admission, doesn’t fit into that. He wanted to play more games so he’s gone with our best wishes.
‘Baggie’s undoing was when he came to us he didn’t appear fit in pre-season - he hardly had a pre-season - so he was always playing catch up. It didn’t really happen for him with us or at Eastleigh, so I think he’s also got to look at himself as well, to be honest.’