United head coach David Hockaday has confirmed that striker Souleymane Doukara will be sidelined for a number of weeks after rupturing his ankle ligaments.

The injury occurred on Saturday against Middlesbrough and is a blow to David Hockaday’s side with the striker set to be missing for a month.

“Souleymane has ruptured his ankle ligaments,” confirmed the boss. “He was involved in a really bad tackle against Middlesbrough right on half time.

“It was right in front of the dug-out and we heard the contact and it looks like he is going to be out for weeks.

“It won’t just be for one or two weeks, he will be out for a number of weeks. We’ll need to see how it settles down but I think it will be three or four weeks minimum.  

“It is a blow and he is a big miss for us. We need more pace and Souley gives us that pace and a bit of power.

“We missed him on Tuesday night and we shouldn’t really be in a position where one player comes out and we miss him. We should have better cover but we know that.”

Another player that was missing on Tuesday night was on loan AC Milan midfielder Zan Benedicic but the head coach explained that was due to a lack of match fitness.

“With Benedicic it is about getting him match fit,” said David. “He came to us and he had been away with Milan in America but he had played no games.

“He came to us, trained a couple of days and played against Accrington Stanley and it was very obvious that he lacked match fitness.

“We have got a behind-closed-doors game on Wednesday so he will play in that and we will see where he is. There is one or two players that need a little bit of match practise.”

With the injury to Doukara the head coach will now step up the search for new recruitments.

“We have been saying that we need to get in another two or three players,” stated the head coach. “We are well aware of that.

“We got Billy in and he ran himself to a standstill on Saturday and he looked a little bit leggy on Tuesday night, he understandably looked tired because he hasn’t had a lot of first team games. Hopefully he will recover because he is a goal threat.”