Gateshead captain Kenton Richardson suffered another injury setback in Saturday's goalless draw at Brackley Town.

Gateshead manager Alun Armstrong is determined to get to the bottom of Kenton Richardson’s injury issues after the Heed captain suffered another setback in Saturday’s draw at National League rivals Brackley Town.

The former Sunderland and Hartlepool United defender has not appeared for the Heed since they claimed a 5-2 win at Morecambe last month and was forced to miss the home defeat against Boston United and last weekend’s FA Cup win at Aveley after picking up an injury. However, after returning to training over the last ten days, Richardson was able to return to a matchday squad for Saturday’s trip to St James Park as Armstrong named his amongst his substitutes for the game.

Gateshead defender Kenton Richardson (photo Emilio Kirtley) | Emilio Kirtley

placeholder image — Gateshead defender Kenton Richardson (photo Emilio Kirtley) | Emilio Kirtley

The Heed skipper was introduced into the action during the second-half of the goalless draw - but his involvement proved to be short-lived as he was replaced less than 15 minutes later. Armstrong described the setback as ‘a massive blow’ for his side and insisted Gateshead had done all they could to aid the defender’s return to fitness after taking a cautious approach over the last three weeks.

“He said it’s the same again and we’ve been really cautious with Kenton,” explained the Heed boss.

“I am so disappointed. He’s trained for ten days now and we could have probably started him today but I wanted to be a little bit more cautious and make sure he is one hundred percent right. He kept himself warm, he kept himself moving and once Callum (Johnson) blew up, it was time for Kenton and he wasn’t even sprinting. It’s something that needs to be looked at.

“I can’t understand how he’s done it, it’s a massive blow, we could have done with Kenton on the pitch from the start today. His voice, his organisation, it helps massively and he gets people on the counter-press, he gets people pressing. So it’s a big blow but we will keep working with him. We’ve brought Ibby (Bakare) in and he’s doing smashing but he’s still learning how we play and how we want things set. Will Flint has done smashing and I just had to take him off because he got booked and I didn’t want to be down to ten men.”

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