Crawley dealt striker injury scare

The forward limped off the pitch in the second half of Reds’ 3-2 defeat against Chelsea in their final pre-season friendly fixture today.

Gregory will sweat on the seriousness of the injury over the weekend and it could mean they head to their League One opener next Saturday with only one fit striker - Izale McLeod.

Gregory said: “It’s a bit too early, but he has a history of having this kind of injury. It’s a bit worrying for me at the moment, I’ll have to wait and see how he responds over the weekend to the medical staff looking after him.

“He missed a lot of games over the last two or three season. We have tried to manage him a little bit better from Monday to Friday with the medical staff to strength the important areas, such as hamstrings and groins, which is what he has suffered with.

“It’s a bit disappointing, he might have tweaked a hamstring today which is really bad news for us, because we saw the best of him today.”

There may still be another signing coming in this week, however, as Gregory added: “I wanted to get one more anyway because going into the season with only two strikers is not the best preparation, because, as we have found out, you lose two and your down to one striker which is not easy.

“We will have to rap Izale up in cotton wool this week without any question, it’s why I took him off so early today.

“I’d love to wrap them all up from Saturday to Saturday, but they have to play in games like this to get their fitness up. I have taken Izale off as a precaution and wish I did the same with Gavin.”