Crusaders boss Stephen Baxter is facing a nervous wait to learn the extent of a knee injury suffered by key forward Ben Kennedy against Glentoran at the BetMcLean Oval.
Kennedy, who scored 15 goals and had 13 assists for the Shore Road men last season, pulled up sharply after taking a corner in Friday night’s 3-1 defeat in East Belfast.
The influential 25-year-old, who is set to undergo a scan early next week, looked to be in pain when he limped off in the 15th minute and Baxter admits any knee problem is cause for “concern”.
Read more: From Croke Park to Windsor Park, 10 GAA stars who have lit up the Irish League
“It’s always a blow when one of your top talents gets an injury, limps out of the game and you’re not entirely sure what the diagnosis of all of that is,” said Baxter.
“There’s always a concern when it’s a knee. We’ll just have to wait and see and let’s hope it’s not too serious. He has a bit of puffiness around his knee and he couldn’t really run freely.
“He had been struggling all week in training with it so it didn’t work and he had to come off. We’ll follow all the medical procedures and see where it is.
“Generally he’ll have an ice pack tonight and tomorrow and probably go in for a scan on Monday or Tuesday. We’ll know more and see where we are then.”
Crusaders, who opened their season with last week’s 5-1 win over Dungannon Swifts, got off to a flier against the Glens thanks to Ross Clarke’s clinical fifth minute strike.
But Ruaidhri Donnelly flicked home an equaliser three minutes later and man of the match Conor McMenamin made it 2-1 from the penalty spot following a Philip Lowry handball just after the break.
Aidan Wilson, who joined the Glens from the Crues in May, added a third with a thumping header from a Shay McCartan free-kick 12 minutes from time.
“Aidan is a good header of the ball, but we didn’t deal with it and it was someone not doing their job properly, which is a disappointment for me," said Baxter.
“We got off to a brilliant start (against Dungannon) last week and we haven’t performed well here tonight, but don’t take anything away from Glentoran, I thought they played well.
“We scored a good early goal and got off to a good start, but then we conceded a weak goal from our point of view and you shouldn’t concede that quickly after taking the lead.
“We were under pressure at times and conceded three goals and the disappointment for me is that we didn’t do well enough in areas of the park that we should have.”
READ NEXT:
- Irish FA unveil plans to power Windsor Park with renewables
Ex-Irish League teens in mix-up over West Ham United hat-trick honours
Rachel Furness taking break from international football "for foreseeable future"
Stuart Dallas showing remarkable powers of recovery as photo proves
Sign up to our free sports newsletter to get the latest headlines to your inbox.
