'GUTTED' Christian Roberts is facing the longest lay-off of his career with the striker set for hernia surgery which could keep him out for two months.

The 25-year-old is mortified at the prospect of being sidelined for such a lengthy period, especially as his discomfort was initially thought to be a mere groin injury.

He was given the bad news by a specialist yesterday and it was hardly the kind of news to cheer a player already climbing the walls in frustration.

He said: "If I tried to describe how I'm feeling then I don't think you could print it in the Evening Advertiser.

"The polite way of putting it is that I'm gutted. I've never been out of action for eight weeks in my life.

"It's hard to know what to do.

"At least it's being done as quickly as possible. That's the only consolation."

Roberts isn't the only one upset at the news. His manager is equally fed-up and fears his striker could be out for even longer.

Andy King said: "A hernia problem has been diagnosed, I think the scalpel will be required and I don't think Christian is one who will come through the injury in record time."

To add to his woes Matt Hewlett is having a precautionary scan to make sure all is well with his troublesome neck injury, Sean O'Hanlon is still struggling with a hamstring problem and Steve Jenkins is only just preparing to return to full training.

King said: "I am going to games all the time, last night, tonight and tomorrow as well as making endless phone calls as I look to bring another body in."

On the plus side, Stefani Miglioranzi came through his first game for almost three months yesterday and could yet be in contention for the visit of Blackpool on Saturday.