'It doesn't look great for him': Jay Spearing 'certain' to miss next few weeks for Blackpool with knee injury

The 30-year-old appeared to twist his knee following a nasty collision just two minutes into Blackpool's 2-2 draw against Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday.

Spearing attempted to come back on to run off the injury but to no avail, eventually being replaced by Harry Pritchard who scored Pool's late penalty to rescue a point.

McPhillips, speaking this afternoon, said: “It doesn’t look great for him but I think it’s got to settle down a little bit before we can see what grade of knee twist it is. Is it a grade one or is it a grade two?

“But I think he’ll certainly miss the next few weeks.

“That’s a big body blow but it is part of the game and I thought Harry Pritchard, who came on for him, was superb on Tuesday.

“Notts (Michael Nottingham) gave him a little short pass and just by his reaction I didn’t like it and you’re thinking ‘oh god’.

“But it’s part of the game."

It is ironic that the man Spearing took the captaincy from at the start of the season, Jimmy Ryan, has now returned to training.

While McPhillips is delighted to see Ryan return to the training pitch with his teammates, the Pool boss says he's still not fully fit to be considered for selection.

"Jimmy Ryan was training today (Thursday) so that was really good to see him running around. He’s got great skills and he showed that," he said.

“I can’t put a timescale on his return, it really is the first proper day where he’s got involved in the games and stuff like that.

“It’s all about how he reacts and goes from there, so we’ll see.

“He really enjoyed himself in training and the lads enjoy playing with him, it was good to see.”

There is also positive news to report on both Mark Howard and Chris Long, although the full extent of Callum Guy's ankle injury is not currently known.

“Mark has trained with us so he’s certainly in contention for Saturday," McPhillips added.

“Longy is fine. With Callum, we’ll wait and see again but he’s improved.

“He was in a boot but he’s out of that now, but I don’t know the length of time for him but hopefully it’s not too long.”

It had appeared Blackpool were returning to something resembling full fitness at the start of January, but the Seasiders have been dealt a number of fresh blows in recent weeks.

“It’s frustrating but what can you do, it’s part of the game," McPhillips said.

“We’ve always said if you can keep your best players fit and keep your best players here then we’d have half a chance.

“Because of that it’s no surprise that when we had some of our best players missing we had a run where we didn’t do so well.

“But Jay’s injury gives somebody else a chance and we’ll see. We’ve got a good group and somebody will benefit from Jay’s absence on Saturday.”