Finn Harps have been dealt a major setback in their quest for eircom First Division honours with the news that defender Jonathan Minnock could miss the rest of the season through injury.
Minnock injured his ankle during last weekend’s defeat to UCD at Finn Park and it was first suspected that the defender had broken his ankle but an x-ray proved that there was ligament damage done.
Finn Harps secretary Joe Doherty revealed that Minnock was to see a specialist on Thursday evening and it was feared that the former Shelbourne defender could miss the rest of the season.
"At the moment it looks as if Jonathan could miss the rest of the season. If so, he would be a huge loss to our title ambitions," said Doherty. "He injured his ankle during the last minute of our match with UCD last weekend and it was first feared that his ankle was broken, but thankfully that is not the case."
Harps’ manager Felix Healy admitted that the loss of the full back has not come at a worse time as the club strive to reach their holy grail of eircom Premier Division football. With eight games remaining in the first division, Harps cannot afford to drop any more points.
"First of all, it was disappointing for Minno. He was disappointed with the mistake last weekend and now has been denied the opportunity to rectify it," said Healy. "He’s also a huge loss for the club as there are few left backs of his quality throughout the country."
Last weekend’s defeat to UCD saw them relinquish their place at the top of the table and with only two points separating the top three, it is a very tight affair in the battle for the title.
