Winger Williams faces a spell out as City close in on a signing

EXETER City winger Randell Williams is set for a spell on the sidelines after picking up a stress fracture of his fibula.

The 24-year-old was absent from the squad that were beaten 2-0 by Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup, raising fears that he could be on his way out of St James Park after he nearly left for League One Peterborough United in the summer.

But Williams’ absence was down to an injury picked up in training, manager Matt Taylor said, that will keep him out of action for at least 3-6 weeks.

“He has a stress fracture of the fibula, which is a real shame for him,” Taylor said. “It’s the fibula so not weight bearing bone, but he’ll be out for minimum of 3-6 weeks I would have thought.

“It is a training injury and come over a period of time, and we hope that the nature of the stress fracture isn’t serious and we don’t think it is as he didn’t come off the training pitch at the time, but reported back with the severe pain.

“It will depend on the pain he is in and he is in a fair amount of discomfort at the moment.”

Taylor said that with Joel Randall, Josh Key, Jack Sparkes and Jake Caprice all available, he has plenty of options in wide areas and so wouldn’t be looking to use some of the club’s limited budget to replace Williams for the period he is out for.

But a centre half and a striker are on the manager’s radar and he said that he expects to complete at least one signing in the next week.

“We are close to one signing that we hope to announce this week and then hope to get a couple more in,” Taylor said.

“We are looking all over and looking at centre forward and centre half. We have enough midfielders and enough wide players so looking at those two priority positions.”