Norwich City loanee undergoes surgery as Motherwell hit with another injury blow ahead of Celtic
It’s a blow for Motherwell as the Norwich City loanee is the latest to be injured.
Motherwell have been dealt another injury blow with news of their Norwich City loanee going for an operation.
The goalkeeping department has come in for some heavy hitting in the past month at Fir Park, with the club now without a manager after Stuart Kettlewell’s resignation earlier this week. Aston Oxborough is out with a thumb injury long-term, and Krystian Heygi was recalled to West Ham.
There is a desire for Matty Connelly to keep playing senior games at East Kilbride, and Ellery Balcombe has been brought on loan from Brentford to help cover. Now Mair has underwent surgery for a problem picked up in training.
He missed the game vs St Johnstone last weekend and now has been hit with the blow that ahead of Celtic, he’ll be missing for a period of time. Motherwell have been ravaged by injury across this season and are already missing Lennon Miller, Paul McGinn, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos and several others.
Caretaker boss Stephen Frail said: “Archie’s had surgery on Tuesday, so we’ll just be looking at how long the prognosis will be for that. Hopefully it won’t be too long.
“I don’t know if the injury was the exact same, but he picked it up the exact same way, a kick on the hand. The same thing that happened to Aston in the Kilmarnock game happened to Archie in a training session two days after we brought him into the club. So there’s that wee bit of misfortune as well.
“We’ve had a wee bit of bad luck with injuries and I think that [highlights it]. I’ve never heard of that injury before, your own player kicking the goalkeeper’s hand, but it has happened twice in as many days.”
Meanwhile, in what has been a dramatic week for the club, vice-captain Stephen O’Donnell says the team are now ready for battle with the champions after shock news. He said: “The start of the week was filled with a mixture of emotions – shock and obviously disappointment in how everything unfolded.
“But we’ve got an exciting game against a top opposition and hopefully looking to get a positive result. I think we’re all experienced enough, most players now have experienced managers moving on, albeit the circumstances around it are a wee bit different.
“But we’re a professional bunch, we work hard and as I say, hopefully be ready for Sunday. It’s a massive challenge. I watched the game the other night, Celtic showing their quality, going toe-to-toe with a top Premier League side in Aston Villa, with all their riches, and we want to do that. We want to go toe-to-toe with the best two teams in Scotland in Celtic and Rangers, to compete, and hopefully that’s something we can do.
“We’ve been working hard, we’ve got the full group together after there was a [bounce] game on Tuesday, so hopefully a hard session today [Friday] and we’ll be ready for Sunday.
“I know they’ve got a few doubts and a few injuries from the game the other night. I’m excited for the game and hopefully it will be a positive result and one that everyone can get behind.”