Neil Critchley's worst fears confirmed as Blackpool receive the results of Sonny Carey's scan

The midfielder, who suffered the injury in the Boxing Day loss at Huddersfield Town, is facing an extended period on the sidelines.

“He’s fractured his metatarsal, which we thought he would have,” Critchley said after the midweek loss to Middlesbrough.

“He’s going to a consultation on Thursday to decide what we do with that fracture.

“It just means he’s going to be out for a number of weeks obviously, which is bitterly disappointing for Sonny.

“Injuries are part and parcel of football, but it’s a blow and a good player we’re going to be missing.”

Carey is the latest player facing a spell on the sidelines at Bloomfield Road, as Critchley was also without nine others for the game against Middlesbrough.

Despite being down to the bare bones, the Seasiders still managed to find a way to get the game on.

They even went as far as starting players who are carrying knocks, handing shirt numbers to youth-teamers and recalling Cameron Antwi from his loan at AFC Telford United.

Taking all that into account, it makes the back-to-back Christmas losses against Huddersfield and Middlesbrough harder to take for the Pool boss.

“I think we deserved at least a point from both games, so we should have an extra two points at least,” he added.

“I watch a lot of the games of the opposition we’re playing and I’ve seen Middlesbrough play, so I know how good they are.

“We’ve given them a proper game. They know they’ve been in a really difficult game. There’s not an opposition team that has caused them as many problems as we have.

“Now look, we’ve still lost and this game is about results, so we’ve got to find a way of seeing the game out and getting a point. We’d have felt better at the end of the game if we’d managed to do that.

“It’s a cruel way to end the game. We don’t feel great at the moment but that’s life, that’s football. We have to go again.”

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