Harrogate Town 'hopeful' regarding the severity of Ellis Taylor's latest quad injury
Harrogate Town are “hopeful” that Ellis Taylor will not be absent for any significant length of time after he reported a fresh issue with his quad.
The 22-year-old has started each of the Sulphurites’ last five matches but missed Saturday’s 4-1 defeat at MK Dons having failed to come through a late fitness test.
Taylor’s return last month from a long-term injury to the same muscle coincided with an upturn in results for relegation-threatened Town, and he was missed again at the weekend.
But, having felt that something was not quite right with his quad during training on Friday, a decision was taken not to risk him at Stadium MK after Taylor again reported concern during that pre-match fitness test.
“Ellis felt the quad that he had been out for a few months with in training on Friday and he looked concerned,” Harrogate boss Simon Weaver told BBC Radio York.
“He felt it again in that late fitness test, so there was no way that we were going to put him in a position where the injury could become more severe.
“Hopefully, he will be okay by the end of the week and in contention for Salford.”
While Taylor was not involved at all on Saturday afternoon, goalkeeper Henry Gray started the game but also suffered a flare-up of a previous injury and had to be replaced in the 70th minute by Sam Waller.
Weaver is however fairly confident that the on-loan Ipswich stopper’s problem is another one which falls into the ‘not serious’ category.
“Henry was on the bed getting a rub down so it’s too early to tell,” said Weaver, speaking straight after Saturday’s contest.
“He came off as a precaution, so hopefully he is okay.
“We could see that he was a limping a bit, so the physios went on and they thought that the best thing to do was take him off.
“It was his groin, which has concerned him before, but hopefully he will be okay.”
Centre-half Liam Gibson, who has endured a torrid time with injuries in recent years, was another player to be replaced in the second half of Saturday’s game.
But the Town chief has confirmed that his departure was in no way fitness-related.
“With the way that the game was going, and Bobby [Faulkner] not having had too much game-time, we thought that we would build his minutes up,” Weaver explained.
“It will be a squad thing with 10 games to go. It’s still quite a lot of football to be played, so we have to have a competitive squad, not just a competitive 11 or 12.”
Harrogate’s defeat at MK Dons was their first in six League Two matches and means that they stay bottom of the table, though they remain within one win of safety.