Injured Bolton Wanderers defender Gethin Jones admits he is 'gutted' to be facing time out but is 'grateful' that his spell on the sidelines will not be as long as first thought.
The 24-year-old will be out for the immediate future after suffering an injury in last weekend's victory against Harrogate Town.
Wanderers head coach Ian Evatt had initially feared that Jones would be out until at least Christmas with suspected ankle joint damage.
But it seems that Jones' injury is not as serious as first feared, following MRI and CT scans and seeing a specialist this week.
Evatt has confirmed that Jones has suffered ligament rather than bone damage, which will put him out for six weeks rather than potentially between six and nine months.
Evatt said: "It’s actually more positive than what we first thought. The initial MRI scan on Gethin wasn’t good.
"However, we’ve since had a CT scan and he’s been to see a specialist, with brighter news and more positive news. It looks more like solely ligament damage rather than bone, which is obviously good.
"So hopefully instead of it being six to nine months, which it could well have been, it’s more like to be six weeks, which is still a big injury and a definite tough one to take but we’d much rather that than the rest of the season."
Jones has since posted his thoughts on social media and has vowed to return as soon as possible.
And though he is 'gutted' to be facing some time out, the defender is 'grateful' he should be back in action sooner than first anticipated.
Taking to Twitter, Jones posted: "Gutted to be spending some time on the sideline, but grateful I’ll be back sooner than first feared.
"Will be working hard to get back ASAP."
