Shrewsbury Town midfielder Benjamin van den Broek faces several weeks on the sidelines after suffering ankle ligament damage.

The Dutchman picked up the injury in last night’s 3-2 reserve defeat to Preston North End at the Grenhous Meadow.

Van den Broek, who scored Town’s second, will certainly miss Saturday’s visit of Northampton and Town boss Graham Turner admits the midfielder could be out for as long as two months.

“We haven’t had a full report from the physio yet,” Turner said.

“But he was forced off with the injury midway through the second half and it was a nasty one to the ankle.

“From what we can gather so far it looks like it was ankle ligament damage and if that’s the case then we could talking several weeks.

“We’ll let it settle down over the next 48 hours and assess it again on Friday but I wouldn’t have thought he will make the game on Saturday.”

And Turner added the setback had come at a time when Van den Broek, who turns 23 next week, had been playing himself into his thoughts having made several appearances off the bench.

He said: “It’s a shame for Benji because he’s been on the bench every week so far this season and has been the one who we have generally used when we want to change it going forward, and he’s generally come on and done well.”

On the plus side for Turner goalkeeper Ben Smith came through 90 minutes after recovering from a groin injury while centre half Danny O’Donnell is closing in on a return after a hernia operation.

Turner added: “There’s no problems with Ben and he came through OK.

“I think Daniel O’Donnell is very close to returning to training with the first team so he isn’t too far away either.”

By ALEX JAMES