TOMMY Sloan has been rocked by a pre-season injury blow after Martin McGoldrick was ruled out for eight weeks.
The influential stopper broke his foot in last Wednesday’s friendly defeat against Ardeer and faces around two months on the sidelines.
And following the departure of Craig Pettigrew to Stranraer, it leaves a massive hole in the Bot rearguard ahead of the new campaign.
Sloan - who partnered Willie Lyle with new signing Mark Campbell in Saturday’s 1-0 win over Bo’neess - said: “It’s a bad one for us as that’s both last season’s central defensive pairing not around for the start of the season.
“Martin was excellent for us last year and will be a big miss. But we’ve brought big Mark in from Irvine and we tried Willie out alongside him on Saturday.
“Injuries and part and parcel of football and you just need to get on with it.” Sloan is still undecided about Kevin Findlayson after handing the former Morton midfielder a 45 minute run-out on Saturday.
The win against the East champs was a welcome return to form after their dismal 3-1 defeat at Ardeer just three days earlier.
He added: “We just didn’t look like ourselves at Ardeer and there was no intensity or edge to our play.
“But it was good to get the win at Bo’ness as they are a good side.
“With regards Kevin, I haven’t spoken to him or made a decision. He is a central player and we are quite well covered in that area so that’s a bit of a disadvantage to him. We will wait and see on that one. I know he has interest from Queen’s Park as well.”
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