Club hopeful Chris Long has not suffered serious groin injury after early withdrawal against Doncaster.

Crewe Alexandra are hoping that the injury sustained by forward, Christopher Long is not too serious. The unfortunate Long was forced off after just 12 minutes of last night’s 1-1 draw with Doncaster Rovers with what looked like a groin strain.

The livewire forward, who was partnering Chris Porter in the Alex attack, seemed to aggravate the muscle when lifting the ball over the  Doncaster defence and although he tried to continue after some treatment from head physio Steve Phillips, he had to be replaced by Madger Gomes just a couple of minutes later.

With the unfortunate Long unable to carry on, David Artell had to re-jig his positions once again with Scott Kashket moved from his new wing-back position to move up to support Porter and Gomes going in on that left hand side.

The club remain hopeful that the latest set-back to Long is not too serious. The former Everton, Burnley and Motherwell man has endured a miserable, stop, start beginning to his Crewe career with injury and illness. He returned to the starting line-up with his first goal against MK Dons at the weekend.

Following the 1-1 draw with Doncaster, Artell said of his early enforced substitution: “The physio, Steve (Phillips) went on and Longy thinks he might have tweaked his groin. His strength was all there, so we are hoping it was some sort of cramping or something like that.

“We don’t know if he has stretched it or not, so we will have to assess how he is. The change was probably half precautionary, half sensible decision, so we will see how he is over the next few days.”