City face anxious wait on Dowell lay-off

Dowell was forced off inside the opening 30 minutes of Saturday’s 2-2 Championship draw against Preston after being unable to continue following a heavy challenge from Ben Davies within minutes of the kick off.

The highly-rated attacking midfielder left Carrow Road with his leg in a protective brace and on crutches but City’s medical staff had to wait over the weekend for the swelling to ease.

City were already without Emi Buendia, who failed a match day fitness test on a shin injury, while Marco Stiepermann was ruled out with a back problem.

Kieran Dowell is assessed by a physio before going off in the 24th minute of City's draw with Preston Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images (Image: Paul Chesterton)

Daniel Farke is hoping for good news after last season’s wretched run of injuries.

“We are a bit worried but let us wait for the results of the scan. It was an unbelievably hard knock,” he said. “We don’t have to speak about the foul. My worry is Kieran is out for a while. It was pretty swollen and all our fingers are cross but it is too early to say how long. If it just a hit or a bruise not so long. The foot, ankle area. A tough hit.

“It didn’t help us because we had already lost another creative player with Emi. We decided on Friday after the last session it was possible he can be in the squad, and he was named in the game day squad, but overnight the bruise came out, it was painful.

Kieran Dowell injured his ankle when he was tackled by Preston defender Ben Davies Picture: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images (Image: Paul Chesterton)

“We tried everything and we even had a final fitness test at Colney on Saturday morning but he couldn’t run or jump properly. There was no chance.”