Sport

Bad news for Ja's Gardner

Ricardo Gardner - File

RICARDO GARDNER'S knee injury has forced him out of the remainder of the English Premier League season.

In a report on the Sporting Life website yesterday Bolton Wanderers manager Sam Allardyce said: "It is a long-term injury and we don't feel that Ricardo will be fit at any stage of this season."

According to the report the Jamaican defender who has been at the English Premier League Club since 1998 is to visit Dr Richard Steadman in Colorado later this week.

The 25-year-old Gardner was injured on January 7 in an English Premier League game against leaders Manchester United when he was stretchered off after just 16 minutes followin an awkward fall. The English season ends in May.

Hoping for the best

Jamaica's technical director Carl Brown said last week that he was aware of Gardner's injury and was hoping for the best.

Brown said then that Gardner would be a great loss if Jamaica failed to obtain his services for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers.

"We will definitely miss him as he is one of our better players and one of our more experienced players as well," Brown said as he looked to Jamaica's qualifiers in June against Turks and Caicos or Haiti.

Gardner had a similar injury three years ago and further surgery would make it his third in four years. He had his left knee reconstructed in 2000.