D-Day for Lowry as he meets surgeon

The midfielder will meet with a surgeon as he bids to sort out his knee ligament problem. Boss Oran Kearney told Times Sport it is likely he will need an operation, which will keep him out for between three and four months. However he added it is not definite he will go under the knife.

“Stevie will meet the surgeon on Tuesday for the final opinion,” confirmed Kearney.

“It looks likely he will need surgery, which mean he will be out until February. But it’s not confirmed as they are not as keen on surgery with this time of injury unless they really have to.”

The Bannsiders lost on Saturday without Lowry and fellow midfielders Ruairi Harkin and Michael Hegarty. They entertain Cliftonville this Saturday challenging his players to get them through this tough period.

“Unfortunately we’ve dropped so many sloppy points this season when we’ve been at full strength that it puts so much pressure on us now when we have so many players missing,” he said.

“We’ll find out now who is up for it. We need even bigger performances now to get us through.

“It’s another big game for us. Cliftonville have struggled to achieve the heights they scaled last season, but they are a quality outfit.

“We’ve proven we are a quality team too though we just need to find some consistency and start kicking on again.”