Notts County boss Luke Williams highlighted his disappointment at having to replace Tobi Adebayo-Rowling after returning to first-team action for the first time since December in their 4-1 win over Barnet.
The Magpies defender landed awkwardly following a challenge with a Bee attacker, and after initially escaping the collision, she was replaced by Jodi Jones at the interval.
And the loan from Oxford United proved to be the catalyst in a much-improved second-half performance, with four second-period goals sending Notts five points clear at the top of the National League.
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Speaking after the game, the Magpies boss was able to provide an early update on Adebayo-Rowling’s fitness.
“We just have to wait for him to stabilize and assess properly. I’m very disappointed in him because he worked so hard to get back into shape and he was really desperate to play.”
“It’s a real shame and I hope it’s not something serious and Tobi gets up and running again relatively quickly and then it’s not so terrible.”
The obvious replacement would have been Aaron Nemane, but the Frenchman was not involved in tonight’s matchday squad, and Williams was able to provide the reasoning behind what he described as the correct decision following Adebayo-Rowling’s subsequent injury.
“He’s in a weird way and that’s the reason he wasn’t there tonight,” Williams explained.
“Aaron is fatigued because we’re testing to see where he is, and it’s very important to protect him because Tobi really needed to come out, and then I would have put Aaron in, but I’m potentially losing two players.”
“So in the end it was the right call, but it wouldn’t have felt like that if we hadn’t gone ahead and won the game.”