Darren Moore on Jon Taylor's injury and why Taylor Richards was absent from Doncaster Rovers' defeat to Crewe Alexandra

Taylor was forced off inside the first ten minutes after suffering an injury when attempting to block a shot into the box.

“It’s too early to tell yet,” Moore said.

“He’s just got some ice on it. You have to give it 24 hours before you can diagnose it.

“He went to block the shot and it’s just caught him.

“He felt in fine form.

“You look at it and it’s just him doing his defensive duties and unfortunately it’s just caught him in the wrong place and it’s forced him off.

“You never want to lose a player of Jon’s capabilities - not when you’ve got a game plan with him in it to execute where we’ve identified points in their defence to get at.

“To lose him early was a bit of a blow but we replaced him with Jason and still felt we had enough impetus in the final third in terms of creating chances.”

Taylor Richards was absent from the matchday squad with Moore revealing the Brighton and Hove Albion loanee had suffered an injury in training.

The Rovers boss does not expect Richards to be absent for long but was not willing to risk him, particularly with a busy schedule to come over the next few weeks.

“Taylor just picked up a little niggle in training, striking the ball,” Moore said.

“With that I just felt that I couldn’t take the risk.

“I’d rather him miss a game or two than prolonging it.

“The fixtures are coming thick and fast from now until Christmas.

“As long as we get him right there’s more than an ample number of games for him to play rather than risking him for one and potentially losing him for six.

“We’ll assess him. If he’s right, he’ll be on the bus for Plymouth on Tuesday. If not, he won’t be.”

Moore is awaiting further news on the recoveries of Tyreece John-Jules and Rayhaan Tulloch who continue to train with parent clubs Arsenal and West Bromwich Albion respectively.

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