SCANS have confirmed that Newport County AFC captain Joss Labadie has suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury and he will meet with a surgeon later this week.

Labadie damaged his knee in training last week and missed Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Luton Town.

Manager Michael Flynn revealed afterwards that his skipper had a suspected ACL injury and the club fears that the skipper may be ruled out for up to 12 months.

The timescale for the 27-year-old’s recovery should become clearer later this week but he is hopeful of returning in around six months.

That could mean that he has played his last game for County.

Labadie, who turns 28 in August, is out of contract this summer and had been in discussions with the Exiles about an extension but the two parties could not agree a deal before the injury.

Flynn said: "It's not good news. It's frustrating, a tough one to take, but he has to be positive and start thinking about the road to recovery.

"The scans have come through and he's done his ACL. We'll know more when he meets the surgeon this week.

"It's hard, no matter what age you are, no player wants that injury, but I know the type of character he is and he'll be mentally strong about it and come back better.

"It was just a tackle in training, someone landed on top of him, something that happens every day, but it was unfortunate the full weight landed in the middle of knee - a bit higher up and he would have ended up with a dead leg. It's frustrating.

"We'll know more when we speak to the surgeon then he'll have a clear plan and time frame of what he needs to do to get back. He understands what he needs to do to make sure he makes a full recovery."

Fellow midfielder Matty Dolan says the players are now doubly determined to make the League Two play-offs for their stricken captain.

“We were missing the skipper and everyone had to work their socks off,” Dolan told iFollow Exiles after Saturday’s match at Rodney Parade.

“We want to do everything we can for him until the end of the season. We’ll get in the play-offs and we’ll give them to him.”

South Wales Argus:

And Dolan (above) is confident that a top-seven finish is still achievable.

“That’s what the manager has told us – we’re not letting this season peter out and you can see that the squad is not letting it peter out either,” he added.

“The home games are obviously massive. We knew at the start of the season with all the away games that if we put ourselves in with a chance then we could do it.

“Everyone in that dressing room believes that we are a match for anyone at home and I think we proved that [on Saturday].

“In a season, you are going to go through tough spells. We were doing so well, and it was so frustrating in the dressing room to drop off them play-offs.

“But we’d rather drop off them early, storm on and then hopefully nick in and get into them.

“We won’t be writing ourselves off those play-offs just yet. If we get the win next weekend, then we can push on from there.”