Jim Magilton admits Cliftonville star likely out 'for the rest of the season' after serious injury confirmed

The diagnosis of Leppard’s injury was revealed after the Reds defeated Coleraine 2-1 on Tuesday evening thanks to Joe Gormley’s brace as Magilton’s men ended a five-game Premiership winless run.

They’ve now moved into fifth ahead of a weekend clash with current league leaders Linfield, but Cliftonville are set to be without centre-back Leppard for the rest of this campaign after being stretchered off against the Lurgan Blues.

The 24-year-old had made 10 Premiership appearances since arriving from Institute in the summer and started in each of their last three outings before suffering the serious injury.

“We’re going to be without Shaun Leppard for the rest of the season,” Magilton told the club’s website. “He’s broken his fib and he’s dislocated his ankle.

"Unfortunately, it looks like it’s a long-term thing for him but obviously, our duty of care is to the player and making sure the operation and whatever else needs done and we’ll wish him a speedy recovery.”

Cliftonville had been struggling to take their chances in the early stages of this season – they’ve now scored two or more in four of 12 league matches while that number stood at seven at the same point last term – but Magilton revealed a couple of small tweaks paid dividends in the Bannsiders victory.

“We made subtle changes to the way we set up and the players took that on board,” he added. “Tactically, I thought they were brilliant.

"Physically, they just emptied the tank and that’s the standard and that’s what we have to do.

“It was about reinforcing the message that ‘you’re good players’ and we’re a good team, in my opinion. We are better than what we have shown and we needed to give our supporters a lift because they’re not used to this in terms of how we have been playing.

"Hands up, we haven’t played particularly well, albeit we’ve been in near enough every game we’ve played in, but it’s been disappointing.

“In the first half, we’re obviously disappointed with the goal we conceded but it was about reinforcing the positives of our group and letting them go out and express themselves.

"I thought we did that better in the second half. There were periods in the game where we controlled the tempo and flow and got back to a way where we could manage the game.

“We were dangerous and had more opportunities to see the game out. We didn’t take them, which always makes for a nervy ending.”