Club waiting on the results of scan on injured winger’s ankle

ST ALBANS City will have to wait to find out the extent of the injury picked up by Sean Shields during Saturday’s 3-0 win over Hitchin Town.

The 19-year-old, pictured below, sustained the injury to his left ankle late in the game and after a lengthy spell of treatment left the pitch on a stretcher with suspected ligament damage.

Shields, who was the club’s November Player of the Month, is waiting on a scan on the injured ankle and City boss David Howell says that heavy swelling is making a prognosis difficult at present.

“There’s not really much news at the moment,” Howell told the Herts Advertiser.

“It’s still very swollen and we’re waiting for a scan to see the extent of the ligament damage. I don’t really want to predict because it could be quite bad or hopefully it might not be as bad as we feared. It’s difficult to tell at the moment because of the swelling so we’ll just have to wait for the results of the scan.”

The City boss is also having to play the waiting game with Drew Roberts. Howell revealed last week that the club had put in a seven-day approach to Bedford to speak to the former City striker who currently leads the Southern Premier Division goalscoring charts with 20 goals but as of yet there has been no news.

“We have 28 days from the initial seven-day approach in which to speak to him and we’ve had about two weeks of that,” revealed Howell.

“Every time I speak to him he seems to keep on scoring. The last time I spoke to him he was going to make a decision but he’s also had offers from Chesham and Chelmsford and I know he was very settled at Bedford so we’ll just have to wait and see.”

Cambridge City are the visitors to Clarence Park this weekend with Gary Roberts’ side without a win in their last six outings.

On-loan Queens Park Rangers defender Michael Harriman is suspended following the red card he picked up in the 6-1 defeat to Barwell in Saints’ last home game and his absence, coupled with Shields’ injury, means St Albans are light on options down their right flank.

Howell has already called up youth team prospect Joe Zazzerra to the senior squad and says he could make moves for other players following training tonight (Thursday).

“We’ve got training tomorrow night and there might be one or two lads we look to sign,” explained Howell.

“There are one or two we’ve got on trial from other clubs and there is a young midfielder we’ve got who I might sign on first team and reserve team forms who has looked good in training so far.

“We’re really looking to address that right hand side with Sean (Shields) out injured and Michael Harriman suspended. It always seems the way that we have a tranche of enforced changes on the back of a decent result.

“I’ve called up the young lad, Joe Zazzerra, to the first team squad. He’s played a couple of reserve team games and he is one of the four youth team players that I’ve signed on first team forms along with Matty Taylor, Myles (Scott) and Tremayne (Charles).”

n The club is running a team and supporters coach to the Weymouth game on Saturday, December 31 (kick-off 1pm).

The coach will depart at 7:30am from the Clarence Park entrance to the ground. The cost is �22 for adults and �13 for U18s but space is limited.

To book a seat please call Ian Rogers on 07714 145862, Barry Hilliard on 07831 859041 or pop into the club shop during the home games against Cambridge City on Saturday or Chesham United on Boxing Day.