Tuesday Scan for Shiels

As the dust settles on the weekends disappointing 1-2 defeat at home to Annan Athletic, attacking midfielder Dean Shiels faces an anxious wait on the treatment table.

It was just after the half hour mark when the Northern Ireland international spent several minutes on the sidelines following a nasty collision with Annan defender Steven Swingehurst, before being stretchered off.

Both player and manager will find out the severity of the injury on Tuesday when a scan has been scheduled.

Manager Ally McCoist had this to say to the clubs official website:

‘Dean has got a really sore one. Obviously we will not know until he is scanned but the doc wasn’t in a positive mood when I spoke to him at half time.

“Dean’s knee is in a brace and it’s heavily iced so he’s in a great deal of pain.

“We will see how it is once the swelling comes down and will get it scanned on Tuesday.”

Saturdays result at Ibrox was the Gers first league defeat of the campaign, a campaign where Shiels has figured 21 times for the light blues, including 19 starts, which have facilitated a scoring return of 7.

The 28 year old signed a four-year contract in the summer after arriving from Kilmarnock, where he was a member of the victorious Scottish Cup side of last season at the expense of Celtic.

Once a former Arsenal trainee, Shiels, then 20, had to have his right eye removed in 2006 whilst at Hibernian. This was the culmination of a domestic accident he had suffered at the tender age of 8, the optical problem continuing to deteriorate ever since.

Hibs boss at the time Tony Mowbray spoke to BBC Sport expressing his admiration for Shiels: ‘he is a young man of remarkable spirit and determination.’

Hopefully this heavy knock sustained on Shiels knee will not be a serious set back to a player who has endured so much during his career so far, nevertheless the midfielder has continued unwaveringly, a true testament to what can be done with the right level of determination and application.

Other sight survivors within the game include former Rangers player Rino Gattuso, who suffered an eye injury in 2011 following a collision with former AC Milan teammate Alexandro Nesta.

The unfortunate altercation resulted in loss of sight in one eye, and kept the tireless midfielder out for much of his final season with Milan, who now plies his trade in Switzerland with FC Sion as Player/Coach. The problem has since improved.

Perhaps most famously, Dutch international Edgar Davids, nicknamed ‘the pitbull’, whilst at Ajax by then manager Louis Van Gaal, opted to wear protective glasses in order to keep playing after being diagnosed with the eye condition Glaucoma, the now iconic eyewear has made the player one of the most recognizable faces in football of his generation.