Motherwell’s Apostolos Stamatelopoulos suffers new blow with broken wrist

Motherwell striker Apostolos Stamatelopoulos has suffered another major blow in a frustrating debut season in Scotland after breaking his wrist.

The Australian could miss the rest of the season after suffering his third injury of the campaign just as he was set to return from the second.

A club statement read: “Apostolos Stamatelopoulos has been ruled out for at least eight weeks with a fractured wrist, which has required surgery.

“After thorough assessment, it became clear that he would be unable to play and will be missing for at least two months.”

Motherwell paid a fee for the 25-year-old when he moved from Newcastle Jets last summer.

The centre-forward tore a thigh muscle on his first start and, after hitting his fifth goal of the season against Rangers on December 29, he suffered a calf injury that has sidelined him since.

Manager Michael Wimmer has plenty of other forwards to choose from and got a better look at his squad during his side’s two-week gap between beating Rangers and hosting St Mirren in the William Hill Premiership on Saturday in his fourth game in charge.

“For us it was good, we could implement new things,” the German said. “We can work on the fitness, and also to get more load in the training sessions.

“And also to have a friendly game, because for me it was important to get a view of the players in the game.

“I said to the players before, it was not always a fair decision for them to be on the bench or to be not in the squad, but it was not possible for me to have the right picture, because they are such a big squad. It was not possible to make fair decisions.

“Now I have a better picture, now I know what the players are playing for, what position is the right position for them. Now I am smarter than I was two weeks ago. More clued up.

“I love to work with these guys and I am very proud of the guys, because I see how they work on each training session and they work so hard and they try to implement the things and they try to do it.

“Of course, everything cannot work, it takes time, but I see they want to do it and this is the most important thing. I see how they do it and the intensity they do it with. If I look at their face, sometimes they are smiling and laughing, so I think they enjoy it.”