Skipper ruled out for the season
Shrewsbury Town can confirm that Captain Abu Ogogo has been ruled out for the rest of the season with a medial ligament injury.
Ogogo suffered the injury in training over the Easter Weekend and scans have revealed that he will require surgery.
That news means that he won’t be available for Sunday’s Checkatrade Trophy Final at Wembley or the League One promotion run-in.
Town boss Paul Hurst gave his thoughts on the news.
“I’m pretty certain it will be for the season, that’s the way it looks”, said Hurst.
“It’s very unlucky and I really feel for him. He’s had the sending off and that’s kind of the frustrating part because it’s happened in training. It was just a block tackle with Bryn Morris and you could tell that he’d hurt something.
“I actually thought that Bryn had hurt himself initially and then I noticed that Abs had moved to the side of the pitch, and you know when that happens that there’s probably something serious and unfortunately that’s the case, so he will be missing the final and realistically the season.”
Ogogo has been a hugely influential part of Town’s successful season to date, making 42 appearances and scoring two goals, but Hurst has urged the squad to come together and cope with the loss of the Skipper.
“It’s his medial ligament, which from speaking with Skitty most medial ligament injuries don’t need surgery, but it looks like on this occasion it does”, said Paul.
“I feel for us as a club, but ultimately I feel for Abs. He has been fortunate to have played at Wembley before with Dagenham, so it’s not something he’s never experienced, but you don’t want to miss games like that and ultimately the games that we’ve got left that are big games.
“It’s a blow, there’s no getting away from that fact, but we’ve got to respond. A lot was made about us not being able to win with him not in the team, but we’ve won two out of three games with him missing, so it’s proved that it can be done and as a team we’ve got to try and step up and cope with his absence.”
Abs is out of contract at the end of the season but Paul revealed that he wants him to stay at the club.
“I still want Abs here but that’s been up in air for a long time”, said Paul.
“I spoke to Abs sometime before Christmas about the potential of a new deal but in the end nothing came back.
“At the time I don’t think he was ready to sign a new deal and I’m not sure if his thought process has changed since then.
“We would like Abs at the football club and I want him at the football club, whether we can agree with him, Junior and others we will see.