NICO Lawrence is set to be sidelined for several months after suffering an ankle injury in Colchester United’s win at Gillingham.
The 19-year-old defender suffered the injury in the final minutes of the first half in the U’s 3-0 victory at Priestfield Stadium.
Lawrence required several minutes of treatment before being stretchered off and after undergoing an X-ray on the ailment, it has been confirmed that the on-loan Southampton centre-back has suffered ligament damage.
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Colchester head coach Ben Garner said: “It’s a serious ankle injury – he’s damaged several ligaments in there.
“We’re looking at a period of months, which is bad news for Nico.
“He’s obviously really disappointed and it’s a setback for him as a young man.
“But he needs to come through that and he will do.
“I think he’ll come back better and stronger and that’s the most important thing.
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“I had a good chat with him yesterday and you do get these disappointments, as a young player.
“The challenge for Nico and for us to support him now is he needs to come back better.
“When he does come back, can he be physically better, can he be mentally tougher, can he be tactically smarter.
“We’ll use that time to try and help with that.”
Lawrence, who has started every league game for Colchester this season after joining them earlier this summer, suffered the injury as he attempted to keep out a Gillingham attacker near the corner flag.
Garner said: “Their forward sort of barged into him ahead of getting to the ball and Nico withstood that impact well but he then rolled his ankle on the next step and it just rolled underneath him.”
Colchester are now in talks with Lawrence’s parent club Southampton about the best course of action for the young defender, as he begins a period of rehabilitation.
Garner added: “We’re in conversations with Southampton at the moment in terms of the best way forward now, in terms of where he does his rehab.
“We’ll agree that with them and then he’ll get every support from us to get him back as quickly as we can.
“It’s basically a case of what’s best for Nico, in this situation.
“Ultimately, he’s Southampton’s player, so we’ll come to an agreement with them and support that as much as we can.
“We wish Nico a speedy recovery and hopefully, we’ll get him back and available as quickly as we can.”
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