Shrewsbury sweating on Junior Brown injury
Shrewsbury Town face an anxious wait as they prepare to learn the fate of Junior Brown after the full-back sustained ligament damage.
The popular left-sided defender, who is into his second campaign at Greenhous Meadow, had been an ever-present in boss Micky Mellon's squad this season.
His all-action displays – including seemingly scoring twice from left-back already this term, although his header against Chesterfield is being claimed by Ivan Toney – have won praise from supporters and the Salop chief alike.
But in the latest piece of frustrating injury news for the Town boss, Brown pulled up near the end of training last Friday after taking part in a routine exercise and missed Saturday's defeat at Bury.
The 27-year-old was rushed for a scan and appears to have picked up ankle ligament damage, but the club are awaiting news on the extent of the injury.
"We were doing some set-plays and he's gone for a header and landed on his ankle," said Mellon.
"We had to send him for an x-ray but it's his ankle ligaments, so we'll see how that one goes. We don't know yet how long he'll be out for, we'll see how he is today. It's certainly not broken, so that's a relief.
"He's been brilliant for us. But we want to try and digest the game against Bury, we trust all of the players and anybody who comes in, we expect them to do a job so we won't be whinging about that."
There was further treatment room frustration for Mellon as AJ Leitch-Smith, Jim O'Brien and Ian Black were all excluded from the last-minute reversal at Gigg Lane.
O'Brien, a high-profile summer capture from Coventry City, last played League One football on August 20 as a recurring groin problem is proving testing.
The winger looked to be back in full training but was another to pull out of the final session on Friday.
"Jim's injured, he wouldn't have been available," the boss said. "He's got this recurring groin problem. He was all right until Friday but then he had to pull out again.
"So we lost him and Junior on the Friday."
Leitch-Smith and Black both have hamstring injuries. The former has been struggling with the problem throughout the opening weeks of the season while midfielder Black sustained his injury in the win at Oldham.
