Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Ross County defender Coll Donaldson faces four-week absence after fracturing cheekbone

Coll Donaldson is helped from the field during last weekend's game.
Coll Donaldson is helped from the field during last weekend's game.

Coll Donaldson is facing a minimum four-week lay-off at Ross County after it was confirmed he had fractured his cheekbone against St Johnstone.

The defender, who arrived from Caley Thistle last month, took a blow to the face late in last weekend’s 1-1 draw with Saints.

While the 24-year-old former Dundee United centre-half cost County only a modest five-figure fee in mid-January, he has quickly stamped his mark back in the Premiership.

What remained unclear yesterday was whether Donaldson’s fracture would require an operation and potentially an extra fortnight’s recovery.

Co-manager Steve Ferguson, preparing for another crucial test at Pittodrie, said: “Coll is through at Aberdeen seeing a specialist. We’ll make sure he gets the best of treatment and is properly looked after, giving him the best chance of returning as quickly as he can.

“He will find out today whether or not it needs to be operated on. The scans and x-rays have shown there is a fracture in his cheekbone. I’ve had the injury myself and it can be a return to play in four weeks, although you may need to wear some sort of protective mask.

“If we can get him back on the pitch in four weeks, we’ll take that, but there’s no point me guessing because we don’t know for sure.”

Donaldson joins Ross Stewart, Michael Gardyne, Joe Chalmers and Tom Grivosti on the list of County players unavailable through injury.

Donaldson was a January signing from neighbours Caley Thistle.

In defence, the Dingwall team has faced frequent upheaval with Ferguson stressing: “What we feel, and I’d imagine everyone else would be the same, is you want that consistency and stability in your back-line. That goes without saying.

“Unfortunately, we’ve not had a great deal of it this season, whether it be through injury or personnel changes.

“You feel you can maybe tinker a little bit more and gamble a little bit more at the top end of the pitch, but you need that consistent back-line that gives you the core of your team.

“It gives you that stability to build on. We’ve not had it, but to be fair we didn’t have it in the Championship either, given the injuries we had last season as well. We’re well-versed in dealing with it. We trust the players we’ve got.

“Coll Donaldson obviously drops out but we have Callum Morris, Liam Fontaine and Keith Watson who can play in that central position. We understand the task ahead and we go and try to attack it the best we can.”