Mark Robins spoke of his devastation after it was announced after Coventry’s 0-0 draw with Cardiff on Thursday night that Sky Blues midfielder Callum O’Hare ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament on Boxing Day against Sheffield United.
The 24-year-old was hurt inside the first 10 minutes at Bramall Lane after an innocuous landing and will now be out for a minimum of nine months.
The former Aston Villa man only returned from a hamstring injury that kept him out at the start of the season in late October and now joins Kyle McFadzean, Matt Godden and Josh Eccles on the long-term injury list at Coventry.
“Callum has a ruptured ACL,” explained Robins. “It is terrible news. We are devastated, absolutely devastated for him because he just lives for football.
“It is something he is going to have to live without for a little while, but be around us, get him as fit as we possibly can.
“His knee needs surgery and you are looking at September at the earliest next year. He had a tough start to the campaign with his hamstring and now this happens.”
Despite missing O’Hare, Coventry were the brighter side against their Welsh opponents as Ben Sheaf hit the post in the first half, while Kasey Palmer and Jamie Allen both went close.
“It was a clean sheet, there were some good performances, we were the team trying to win it, on a difficult surface,” added Robins.
“It is two days-play, two days-play. It just puts people at risk and we haven’t got enough in terms of numbers and people being available to make changes to win football matches.
“The lads have done brilliantly, all of them, but they need some help. January, when it comes around, we need some help, we need to get some bodies in because we are not going to have the injured lads back for a while anyway.”
Cardiff manager Mark Hudson was happy with how his side stuck together as the Sky Bet Championship’s lowest scorers were able to carve out a fourth successive draw.
“We said at the end when you don’t particularly play well with the ball, don’t get beat,” said Hudson. “Clean sheet at this ground against a very, very good Coventry side, good manager, huge experience in the game, for me, the best in-form striker in the league as well shows that they’re putting their bodies on the line for the club.
“We turned it over a little bit too much, put the ball at risk too much, went through where their strength was with the box in midfield. We got trapped a bit sometimes, and decision making, which we went through again at half-time.”
Mark Harris had Cardiff’s best chance when he cut inside following Rubin Colwill’s pass and drilled his shot into the arms of Coventry goalkeeper Ben Wilson.
Hudson added: “You’ve got to put your body on the line, show togetherness, keep compact distances. We’ve had fatigue, a few crampy issues, the lads looked tired but they kept going, players playing out of position and that’s testament to them.
“It’s not always going to be us in control, especially when you come to places like this. It’s a minimum requirement to give everything for each other, they fought for each other and the two centre-halves were excellent. A really good battling performance.
“We are giving ourselves a platform to go and get points from games, if we continue to work like that and work together, it will come.”
