By Grimsby striker Ryan Taylor to be sidelined for ‘a number of months’
Grimsby Town striker Ryan Taylor is set to be out for a “number of months” after suffering a hamstring tear.
Mariners boss Paul Hurst said the forward suffered the injury in training last week, in preparation for the FA Cup tie with Plymouth Argyle.
Taylor, who turned 34 earlier this year, has featured 16 times for the club so far this season and has scored three times in the league.
Speaking to Radio Humberside, Hurst said: “It will be a while before we see Ryan again in a Grimsby Town shirt. It looked relatively innocuous.
“It was in training last Thursday in preparation for the Plymouth game. Then he had a scan and it’s quite a bad injury, so it will be a number of months.”
Hamstring injuries are graded from one to three, with one being a mild muscle pull or strain and three being a complete muscle tear.
Hurst said on the grading the club got back from the scans, it is the “highest that I’ve ever known”.
Although the Town manager said he was “very disappointed” following the news, he doesn’t expect the injury will rule the striker out for the remainder of the season and put a timeline for his recovery at about three months.
“It’s disappointing for Ryan,” added Hurst. “He’s obviously getting to the latter stages of his career.
“Last season, he was maybe third or fourth highest appearance maker, despite having a couple of injuries and we’d had a conversation recently about how we must be doing something right to get that number of games out of him.”
Hurst said Taylor has admitted he’s “found it hard this year at times” but given that he’s led the line for the majority of the games this season, the manager believes it’s a “big loss” for the team and the group overall.
Brendan Kiernan filled in up top in Town’s 5-1 demolition of Plymouth Argyle last weekend, scoring twice in the process.
Speaking about whether he could be called upon to play up front against this weekend, Hurst said he’s “got to considerate it”.
“He certainly did a very good job last week,” added the Town boss.
“I don’t want to take anything away from Brendan but I kind of said his performance might still be very good against different opposition, but I think Doncaster play similar to Plymouth, although not in terms of the way they expose their defenders.
“So, it would probably have to be a different type of performance from him. He can still do well but, at the minute, as we’ve said with the injuries, we haven’t got loads of options.”
