Arbroath have been dealt a big blow ahead of this afternoon’s League 1 game with Queen’s Park at Hampden with the news that star striker Steven Doris has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
The 29-year-old hasn’t played since injuring his knee against Albion Rovers at the start of September.
It was initially thought rest would be the cure but when the problem did not clear up, it looked like he had suffered a slight tear to his cartilage.
However, another scan this week has now revealed that Doris will be missing for the foreseeable future.
It is a huge setback for Gayfield gaffer Dick Campbell who is still reeling after his side lost two league games in a row including last Saturday’s defeat to Ayr who are now locked at the top of the table with fellow full-timers Raith.
The manager said: “We have suffered a massive blow with the news that Steven Doris has in fact suffered a cruciate ligament injury and will miss the rest of the season.
“I am absolutely gutted for him.
“He will be a huge loss for us so I might try to do something in the January window.
“I am also having a look at former Dundee striker Leighton McIntosh. He has been in Iceland recently but he is training with us and we will take it from there.
“However, for the moment, we will just have to get on with things with another important game coming up against Queen’s Park at Hampden.”
Campbell added: “To be fair, I am still trying to get my head around what happened against Ayr last week.
“I felt we should have won comfortably but didn’t take our chances, were punished severely and lost 4-1.
“We didn’t defend well enough and passed up a whole load of opportunities.
“There will definitely be changes for the Queen’s Park game with big Rab Douglas in line for a major comeback in goal.
“We are obviously determined to get back to winning ways.
“To be honest, we are close to where we should be in the league at the moment.
“Not surprisingly, the two full-time teams have stolen a march at the top of the table but there is only one point between the four teams below them including ourselves.”
Josh Skelly will also miss out through injury for Arbroath.
