Diamond injury shook us up, says boss

ZANDER Diamond suffered soft tissue damage and whiplash injuries to his neck during the warm-up at Chesterfield this week.

The centre-back was knocked unconscious for a short time during the freak accident, in which he fell heavily to the ground, before being carried from the field on a stretcher in a neck brace.

After spending the night in hospital, he was allowed out yesterday morning.

"It gave everyone a bit of a scare," said manager Paul Dickov.

"It is never nice at any point to see a player carried off in a neck brace, never mind in a warm-up.

"He was knocked out for a couple of seconds when it happened as well. We’re calling him Lazarus.

“The good thing is he is up and walking around. A lot of it was precautionary, but you can't take any chances."

Elsewhere in the squad, Bradley Diallo is still a long way off returning following his injury setback.

And with Paul Black and David Mellor currently out of favour, it appears that Kieran Lee — who Dickov emphasised he ideally wants on the right — will continue at left-back against Exeter tomorrow.

"Bradley is still struggling," Dickov added. "We were hoping he would be back three or four weeks ago, but the tendon in his hamstring has come away from the bone and so it is going to be a long-term thing, unfortunately.”