Setback for Grecians as Ajose is hurt

EXETER CITY have suffered a blow with the news that striker Nicky Ajose will spend some time on the sidelines with a knee injury, writes Stuart James.

The 27-year-old summer signing has found himself out of the first team in recent weeks, but scored his first goal for the Grecians in the recent 1-0 Leasing.com Trophy win over Cheltenham Town.

Manager Matt Taylor confirmed that the striker had suffered a setback but the extent of the injury is not yet known, with Ajose (pictured below) set for a scan this week.

“Nicky Ajose has picked up a knee injury, unfortunately, and we don’t know the extent of that as yet,” Taylor said, “but I’ve alluded to it time and time again this season about how important the group is.

“We’ll see what happens with Nicky. It’s a real shame off the back of a good performance and getting his goal against Cheltenham and just coming into the fold at the right time. Hopefully we haven’t lost him for a long period of time.

“He picked up the injury on Tuesday and we assessed him yesterday and he’ll go for a scan today,” Taylor added yesterday. “It’s precautionary, as much as anything, just to really find out the details of it.”

Former Cheltenham Town midfielder Nigel Atangana has got through a second week of training and Taylor hopes that he can get some match action soon, in either a specially arranged reserve-team game or an Under-23 XI fixture.

Taylor’s table-topping team return to League Two action tomorrow with a home game against Leyton Orient, who are 17th in the standings.