Oxford United have been dealt another injury blow after news emerged that Liverpool loanee Ben Woodburn will have to wait even longer before a U’s return.
The 20-year-old, who suffered a broken bone in his foot during Oxford’s 2-2 draw at Accrington eleven weeks ago, has suffered a broken bone in his other foot as he closed in on a U’s return.
Woodburn, who has been recovering with his parent club in Merseyside, suffered the injury in a final training session before rejoining Karl Robinson’s squad.
Robinson told the Oxford Mail: “Ben loads in a very peculiar way on the outside of his feet.
“He was in the process of getting orthotics (insoles) and everything was done to take the load off that side of the foot. Everything was getting made to make sure it didn’t happen.
“Then all of a sudden just by catching his foot in training it unfortunately materialised. He’s an extremely talented young man. He’s not injury prone, it’s just unlucky.”
The midfielder underwent surgery yesterday afternoon and could be back towards the end of February.
The U’s boss remains hopeful that Liverpool will agree to suspend the proportion of Woodburn’s salary, which could be until he has recovered or even until the end of the season.
The youngster is one of the highest-paid at the club, and if the Premier League leaders could compromise on his wage, it would free up budget to bring a replacement in.
Robinson added: “Liverpool were really happy with what we were doing with Ben and I think the relationship is strong.
“We don’t want to say it’s done when it isn’t but we’ve had many conversations.
“If we are where we think we’ll be he’s got the whole of March and April, maybe May, it’s a quarter of the season.”
The U’s welcome league leaders Wycombe Wanderers to Grenoble Road this weekend following defeats against MK Dons and Manchester City respectively.
