‘Could be serious’ – Dave Challinor's injury fears over key Hartlepool United defender Ryan Johnson

The 24-year-old centre-back has played a key role for Pools so far this season but was forced to sit out Good Friday’s 2-1 win over Dagenham & Redbridge.

And manager Dave Challinor fears Johnson’s hyper-extended knee injury could be serious as Pools wait for a clearer prognosis.

“It was an innocuous incident in training, a ball came in, Henrich [Ravas] came in for it, Johno slammed the brakes on and there was a tiny collision but he’s hyper-extended his knee,” said the Pools boss.

“It was initially sore, got assessed and seemed fine, single-leg hopping and things like that but it’s stiffened up overnight and swelled up a little bit.

"We need to get a scan as quickly as we can and we hope it’s not serious but we can’t rule that out yet. It potentially could be.”

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