Blow for AFC Rushden & Diamonds as captain Collard's season is over

The influential central defender, who has scored seven goals this season, suffered a broken hand in last weekend’s 3-1 win at Redditch United in which he scored twice.

He played on through the injury and also played again in Tuesday’s 0-0 draw at Biggleswade Town.

However, having seen a specialist, Collard has now been ruled out for the next seven weeks meaning he will miss the last four games of the regular season in the Southern League Premier Central and the play-offs should Diamonds secure a top-five finish.

Interim manager Andy Burgess confirmed the news after watching his team draw 3-3 with Leiston at Hayden Road.

“The first thing I said to him was that I was so devastated for him because of when it has happened,” Burgess said.

“He is a leader, he is a massive character in the dressing-room and he’s a fantastic captain.

“He is someone who wears his heart on his sleeve and he’s been the top scorer at the club since I have been here.

“He won the player-of-the-month award today and that just compounded the disappointment.

“We have to deal with it. It’s an opportunity for other players. Ryan Hughes is hopefully coming back from his injury and will hopefully train on Thursday and we have Shane Bush who did a job in there for us today.

“It is devastating but I feel we have enough to deal with it.”

It was a topsy-turvy game against Leiston in front of a season-high crowd of 712 at Hayden Road.

Diamonds fell behind but levelled through a spectacular finish from Jordan Graham, in his first start for the club.

Leiston regained the lead but Diamonds hit back again with two goals in as many minutes to lead 3-2 thanks to a Nathan Tshikuna penalty and a Jesse Akubuine strike.

However, Diamonds were forced to settle for a point as Leiston equalised with a penalty of their own late on.

With Alvechurch winning 1-0 at Stourbridge it means Diamonds’ lead over the sixth-placed team has been cut to five points with four games to play.

And that’s a position Burgess is still happy to be in.

“It was a game that ebbed and flowed,” he added.

“The two goals we conceded were really poor defensively and the other was a soft penalty. The goals we let in were avoidable.

“But the goals we scored were good. The first one from Jordan Graham was magnificent and I thought he was outstanding. And we showed the character to come back to 2-2 and when we got to 3-2 up it felt like it might be our afternoon.

“But I didn’t feel comfortable out of possession all afternoon. I felt we were a bit vulnerable against a good, physical team.

“When you look at it, I think you would still prefer to be in our position.

“It’s in our hands, I know what this group is capable of.

“We are working on low numbers and we have some knocks but I am not hiding behind that.

“It’s going to be an exciting last four games. There will be twists and turns but I am still confident.”