Collar out for the season as Warne explains Nemane over Tomlinson decision
Injury updates and selection decisions made after MK Dons’ draw with Oldham on Monday
Midfielder Will Collar will not feature again this season after suffering a new injury while returning from his last.
The ex-Stockport man has been missing since Boxing Day after suffering a hamstring injury against Swindon Town. While he looked on the brink of a return last month, doing his rehab alongside team-mate Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, the 29-year-old then suffered another muscle injury, this time in his quad, which is set to keep him out for the remaining few weeks of the campaign.
Head coach Paul Warne confirmed “Will Collar unfortunately did his quad in training so he won’t be a part of anything for the rest of the season now.”
A man missing from Monday’s game against Oldham was Jon Mellish. The Wigan Athletic loanee has featured 39 times for Dons this season, but was absent from the squad at Boundary Park after being withdrawn at half-time on Good Friday against Barrow.
Warne confirmed the wing-back is suffering from an injury which he hopes will settle by the time Dons face leaders Bromley on Saturday.
He continued: “Jon is struggling with his hernia, I noticed it last week, he just looked like he didn’t have any power in his legs. We’ve given him a couple of days off to hopefully give him a bit of a rest and hopefully he will be ok for Bromley.”
It meant a start at Boundary Park for Aaron Nemane at left wing-back. With some quarters of the Dons fanbase calling for more game-time for Joe Tomlinson, Warne explained his decision to opt for Nemane on Monday, saying: “The way we’ve been playing, we need our wing-backs to be really aggressive high up the pitch, and Aaron has trained really well. When he came on last Friday, I thought he did really well and added a different dynamic to our play. It wasn’t a difficult choice.
“I had Joe to consider as well but I thought Aaron might have caused more problems, and in fairness he caused them a lot and credit to him.”
Battling on with a broken nose was striker Callum Paterson, who initially played with a protective mask on in the first-half on Monday. However, while the side celebrated Marvin Ekpiteta’s header to open the scoring on the half-hour, Paterson was quick to ditch the mask, playing the remaining hour without it.
Warne added: “He trained in it on Sunday and I thought he was horrific in it. Every time you head the ball, it hurts your head, and Pato heads the ball. I don’t think he enjoyed it, so the mask came off but he didn’t break his nose again so that was handy.”