Charlton Athletic defender Mandela Egbo suffers serious quad injury – better news on stretchered off centre-back Eoghan O’Connell

Charlton Athletic defender Mandela Egbo has been ruled out for a number of months after rupturing his quad in Saturday’s 4-4 draw against Ipswich.

The former Crystal Palace right-back was subbed off in the opening stages of the League One fixture.

And Addicks manager Ben Garner has confirmed that Egbo, who also missed the start of the campaign after injuring his knee in a pre-season friendly at Dartford, is facing a long road back.

But there is better news on centre-back Eoghan O’Connell, stretchered off in the same match, as his knee injury is not as severe as initially suspected.

“It’s not good news at all on Mandela Egbo,” said Garner. “He has ruptured his quad, it’s the worst possible case. It’s such a freak injury. He’s just caught his own foot as he kicked and that mechanism has caused the injury. It’s a one-in-a-million injury and we’re so disappointed with it for Mandela.

“We’re looking long-term. He is going to have surgery next week and then it is going to be a long rehabilitation process.

“He got injured by a bad tackle in pre-season and that cost him time. He got up to speed and proved what a great player he can be at this level and now he gets this setback. I know Mandela well, I go have emotional attachments with the players – it’s how I am and how I like to work – I’ve known Manny since he is 11 years old. He is such a great character who will do everything right to be back as quickly as possible.

“Eoghan is better news than we expected. We feared the worst with Eoghan but it is weeks, rather than months, which is a big positive. We’re really fortunate it is not as serious as we feared and I would definitely hope he is back this side of Christmas. We’ll get him back as quickly as we can. He’s already chomping at the bit and trying to get off his crutches.”

Ryan Inniss completes his suspension after this weekend’s fixture.

And Garner does not have the luxury to rest players with an EFL Cup tie at Stevenage on Tuesday to contend with as well.

“We’re a bit limited because we have got five unavailable this weekend [due to injury] and Ryan’s suspension makes it six,” he said. “Pretty much everyone else will be involved. We’ll have to use a lot of academy players but we can still put a strong team on the pitch.

“There are not too many options or decisions for me to make in terms of the squad.”

PICTURE: PAUL EDWARDS