Hamilton's Gary Woods out of Rangers clash after '˜freak kidney injury'

Gary Woods was forced off early in the second half at McDiarmid Park. Picture: SNS Group

The Accies number one suffered his bizarre injury during Saturday’s defeat at St Johnstone and boss Martin Canning fears it could keep him out for a month.

“I don’t know how it’s happened,” admitted Canning, who has also been told defender George Sarris requires a knee operation that will rule out for six weeks. “Just by landing heavily it seems. It’s just a freak accident.

“He had a bit of bother with it over the weekend and went up to hospital yesterday. They’re keeping him in for 48 hours to keep an eye on him.

Woods was replaced by Darren Jamieson at the weekend, with the former Livingston 'keeper making his Accies debut. Picture: SNS Group

“They don’t think it will be anything major, but it will definitely put him out of Friday.”

The injuries to Woods and Sarris add to Canning’s problems. The New Douglas Park boss is already without Grant Gillespie and David Templeton, while another midfielder, Darian MacKinnon, is missing through suspension after being sent off in the dying moments of Accies’ 2-1 loss to St Johnstone at the weekend.

However, Canning admits he is grateful for the backing he gets from the Hamilton board after seeing friend Jim McIntyre axed by Ross County just seven games into the new season.

He said: “I was surprised to see Jim lose his job, but that just seems to be the way modern-day football is now. You get a couple of bad results and the manager goes.

“I know Macca well and he’s a good guy. It’s disappointing to see any manager go, especially one who has brought relatively good success to small club like County.

“Under him they finished sixth and seventh and won a cup too, which is good going up there.

“When you see what has now happened to him it just makes me grateful for the support I get here. I know my objective is to stay in the league each year.

“If we do that, we see that as success for us. But when you look at Ross County, where they have finished and their result with the League Cup, you’d say that is success is for them.

“It just seems that it doesn’t matter what your previous successes are if you’re form is not good in that moment.

“We’ve been fortunate here that when we’ve gone through sticky spells the board have stuck by us. That’s great, but we know ultimately it’s a result business and we cannot ever afford to take that for granted.

“But I suppose Jim is a victim of his own success. He has raised expectations up there, just like my other friend Alex Neil did when he went down to Norwich. He got them promoted to the Premier League. When they were relegated back to the Championship and ended up in the area they had been in when he took over, all of a sudden it was decided he was no longer successful.

“If you raise the bar but fail to maintain it, you’ll pay the price.”