WILL Goodwin faces a minimum of six weeks on the sidelines after a scan revealed an ankle ligaments injury.

A contact injury suffered in training saw Goodwin miss out on Oxford United’s final game of pre-season, the defeat at home against Palermo.

Goodwin was sent to the John Radcliffe Hospital, with an initial X-ray showing there was no break or fracture to the striker’s ankle, however an MRI scan has confirmed ligament damage.

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U’s head coach Des Buckingham said: “Will picked up an ankle injury and went off for an X-ray. There’s no fracture and no break, and we then sent him for a secondary MRI scan on the ligaments in his ankle.

“He’ll be out for a minimum of six weeks at the moment, so hopefully not too much more than that.”

The injury update reinforces United’s search for a striker in the transfer market.

“I joked that the club’s been looking for another centre forward for the last two years,” said Buckingham.

“Mark Harris to be available for all the games he was last year, we can’t rely on that again this year.

“We know we’ve got players in amongst the building, whether it’s Matty Phillips who can play that role, and we’ve got Gatlin O’Donkor who we know can play that role too.

“It’s about making sure that we bring in the reinforcement in that space, that’s going to help us do what we want in the Championship, and support Mark Harris and whoever else might be there to play that role.”