Wigan Athletic star will hopefully be fit for start of next season

The Northern Ireland international had to be helped from the field during the early stages of the second period in Berkshire.

From the way he landed awkwardly, and the pain etched on his face, it was feared he may have sustained the kind of long-term knee injury that ended the seasons of team-mates Jason Kerr and Martin Kelly.

However, boss Shaun Maloney has revealed the damage is not quite as bad as they were expecting, and he may even be fit for the start of next season.

"Josh has a pretty bad knee injury," reported the Latics boss.

"There's a fracture in there, and it's a really bad injury.

"But we're really hopeful he'll be back in August, so it's not as bad as it could have been.

"Josh was competing and performing as well as he had been since I was here

"I've spoken before about what a massive positive figure in the dressing room he is.

"We missed him at Reading, we'll miss him on Monday, but hopefully he'll be back raring to go in August."

With fellow striker Ashley Fletcher having broken his arm the previous weekend, and Kelly wrecking his knee on debut at Blackburn in January, the injury Gods have not been kind.

"I should have known from the beginning - when Martin Kelly's season was over after 75 minutes - how it was going to be,” added Maloney.

"But that's just football.

"We have a really big squad, some areas bigger than others, but these things happen.”