INVERNESS CALEDONIAN THISTLE were yesterday facing up to the sickening blow of losing the influential Gary Warren to a broken leg.
The recently appointed team captain shattered his fibula bone in a clattering challenge from Motherwell's Stephen Pearson on Saturday.
Warren, a huge player in last season's Scottish Cup run and third place Premiership finish, is now contemplating missing a significant chunk of the new season.
It is understood the best-case scenario, if Warren has avoided complications, is six to eight weeks of rehabilitation.
But the absence could stretch to several months depending on the nature of the break and whether the weight-bearing tibia is affected.
It amounts to another cruel blow to the 30-year-old former Newport County centre-half who missed both of the club's Scottish Cup and League Cup final appearances through suspension over the last two seasons.
Manager John Hughes admitted he was devastated by the news yesterday amid mounting injury troubles for Inverness.
Hughes said: "Gary has broken his leg. It's the smaller bone, the fibula, on the side of the leg.
"I'm absolutely gutted for him. Since the first day I arrived at the club, Gary has been such an honest, hard-working individual.
"He was so very unfortunate to go and miss out on two cup finals and then this happens.
"Gary had only just taken over the captaincy as well, so it's devastating for him personally and for all the lads.
"I've no clear indication yet as to how long he will be out, but we just need to wish him a speedy recovery."
The dream scenes of Hampden Park and Europa League qualification have quickly segued into disturbing times for Inverness.
Warren's misfortune comes on the back of a Europa League exit to Astra Giurgiu and the opening-day defeat to Motherwell in the league.
Josh Meekings also limped out of Saturday's tussle at half-time, although Hughes had no idea how serious his injury was.
The central-defensive pair join Aaron Doran, James Vincent, Carl Tremarco, Richie Foran, Dean Brill, Jordan Roberts and young Calum Ferguson on the injury list, although all are short-term absentees.
On top of that, Hughes has recruited strikers Dani Lopez and Andrea Mbuyi-Mutombo but both remain short of match fitness for now.
The wafer-thin resources were exposed with two bare spaces on the Inverness bench in the narrow defeat to the Fir Park side.
Hughes added: "We haven't the resources to go and spend on emergency signings, so hopefully a good few of the lads will be back soon."
Goalkeeper Owain Fon Williams, one of five summer signings, has only spent a fortnight or so with the club but was well aware of the significance of losing Warren.
The former Wales Under-21 said: "The injury to Gaz is a tough one to take as he's an integral part of the team.
"Drapes [Ross Draper] came in and filled the gap tremendously well, but when you start losing important players it is always difficult.
"It's never nice to see someone being carried off the pitch in that manner.
"And you know immediately, when a big character like Gary goes down and stays down, it's worrying.
"I've only known the lads a couple of weeks but you quickly see who the tough cookies are – and Gary is definitely one of them.
"He doesn't stay down without good reason and I hope to God he's going to be back with us as quickly as possible."
Fon Williams, who saved Scott McDonald's penalty brilliantly, added: "You save some, you miss some. I'm not going to get carried away.
"It's one where I read it and went the right way, luckily keeping hold of it.
"Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to get the points. It's a really disappointing start to the season."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here