SAM Lavelle will likely be out of action until mid September with the leg injury which kept him out of the defeats against Fleetwood Town and Crewe Alexandra.
The 21-year-old suffered the injury in the 2-2 draw with Chester on 24th July and has not featured for the Shrimps since.
The defender said: “I can’t remember a specific moment in the game when it happened.
“I developed quite a sharp pain that I thought was a kick so I tried to play through it but it just kept getting worse throughout the second half so I came off. At the time it was just precautionary.
“As I say it felt like a bad bang so I expected it to settle down over the following few days but it seemed to get worse as the days went on to the point where it was keeping me up at night.
“I had an MRI scan prior to the Crewe game and nothing showed up. That was strange so I saw the specialist on Monday and that’s when I got the diagnosis.
“As I understand it, it’s the muscle that connects the front of the leg to the back. There’s some nerve damage in there too which explains why it’s so painful.”
Physiotherapist Simon Farnworth added: “We had a re-scan and saw a sports physician who revealed Sam has a tear to the Interosseous Membrane of the Tibia and Fibula.
“It’s a really rare injury, they say they haven’t seen many of them and they’re even going to archive this case as there really isn’t much documentation on this type of injury.”
When asked about the time Lavelle is expected to be out of action, Farnworth replied: “We’re looking at six weeks from the time of injury so probably another four weeks from now.
“Sam’s going to stick to bike and water work for now and we’ll hopefully have him running again by the end of next week, which will be about three and a half weeks at that time.
“We’ll then build him up slowly to the point where we can get him back playing again.”
The former Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers youngster travelled to Gresty Road for the Shrimps’ disappointing display versus Crewe Alexandra and although he wasn’t involved, said it was a difficult experience.
“Saturday was difficult to watch. I was sat with Thommo, Ben Hedley and Carlos and it was hard” he said.
“It is difficult to watch wanting to help your mates out and can’t. Knowing how good we’ve been in pre season and seeing it go so wrong like that was very difficult.”
