Injury blow for Motherwell with Tom Sparrow sidelined for ‘minimum of a month’

Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell faces more disruption to his team after Tom Sparrow was told he could be out for the rest of the year.

The midfielder played through injury for most of last weekend’s 2-1 defeat against Ross County and will begin his lay-off when Motherwell host Hibernian on Saturday.

Kettlewell said: “Tom sustained an ankle injury in the first minute of the game on Saturday, as it turns out. So we reckon, based on the scan, that he’s going to be out for a minimum of a month, which is a real blow.

“He’s obviously pitched in with a couple of goals this season, kind of getting himself up to speed, found himself in our team.”

Just as midfielder Harry Paton is getting back up to speed after missing much of the past nine months with two separate ankle injuries, Sparrow joins a growing list of long-term absentees which includes Sam Nicholson, Callum Slattery and Ross Callachan.

“We have found ourselves in a position where, since the very first game of the season, we’ve constantly had to work towards the profile of player that we have available,” Kettlewell said.

“That hasn’t allowed us to play a certain way, week in, week out, have that level of consistency, which I would always look for.

“But within that, there’s been some good performances, there’s been some good results.

“So from my side, it’s always trying to find the best formula for what you’ve got available to you, who’s training well, who looks as if they’re showing up well during the week, which I think you have to put a lot of emphasis into.”

On the injury list, Kettlewell added: “That does impact and sometimes hamper exactly what your plan A is. But I’ve always been a believer in that plan B, plan C, to make sure that we can adjust to situations. And we’ve done that very, very well for the large part of this season.

“So again, this week and probably moving forward in the next few, it’s going to be a big game of trying to find the best solution to the opponent that we play against in accordance to what’s available to us.”

Kettlewell was unable to start Tawanda Maswanhise during the 2-1 defeat in Dingwall after the in-form goalscorer experienced delays on his return from international duty with Zimbabwe, while Tony Watt missed the game with a back spasm which has now cleared up.

Kettlewell said: “I think that everybody will understand that Tawanda would have been one of the names at the forefront of my mind going to play against Ross County.

“But again, I can’t control the nightmare travel, essentially, that he had. By the time he gets back here, by the time we get him up to Dingwall, he was exhausted, he was knackered. He’s had a couple of days completely disrupted.

“But he now settles back in and he has a week’s training. We’ll hopefully get him to the stage where he was at against the likes of Dundee United, where he’s grabbing a couple of goals and being a real handful.”