'It's just incredible what's happening this season' - Hawks suffer fresh injury blow as debutant Guy Hollis forced off in Billericay draw and boss Paul Doswell explains Abdulai Baggie's exit

The newly arrived centre-half, whose deal from league rivals Slough Town was completed in time for him to feature for his new side in Essex, suffered a serious-looking ankle problem just 12 minutes minutes into his debut.

Doswell is now fearful he could be without Hollis, who travelled to hospital for an X-ray after sustaining the injury, for a prolonged period.

The Hawks boss had moved to bring the experienced Slough centre-half to Westleigh Park with fellow defenders Sam Magri facing months on the sidelines with an ACL injury and Crawley loanee Manny Adebowale returning to the League Two club.

Yet, it appears as though Hollis could be out for weeks at least while leading scorer Jake McCarthy and suspended Paul Rooney (both ankle) were also injured for the trip to Billericay.

And Doswell can scarcely believe the problems he has encountered with injury absences over the course of the campaign.

‘Again, with four players not being available for the first XI (at Billericay) and then losing Guy Hollis within five or 10 minutes - it’s just incredible what’s happening this season,’ said Doswell.

‘We don’t know (extent of Guy’s injury), it could be broken, if it’s not broken it’s severe ankle ligament damage. It just pretty much sums up our season, to be honest.

‘It looks really bad (Guy’s injury). I think he turned his ankle as he actually landed and the lad has landed on top of his ankle and both sides have absolutely ballooned.

‘It just sums up the season so far (Guy’s injury) with Wally (Alex Wall) being out for 10 weeks, Jamie Collins out for 10 weeks - they’re not short injuries - we’ve had two concussions, Achilles tendinitis with Rooney (Paul) and Jake McCarthy rolled ankle is out - it just goes on and on and on.’

Substitute Tommy Wright, himself suffering with an ankle issue but introduced in place of the injured debutant Hollis, came off the bench to level for the Hawks on 78 minutes. His crisp effort cancelled out Shaquille Coulhirst's opener which gave the bottom-side the lead on 70 minutes.

Following Hollis' arrival, the Hawks announced the departure of attacker Abdulai Baggie, who made his debut for new club Salisbury in their goalless home draw against Weston-super-Mare yesterday.

Doswell explained the departing forward's failure to fit into his preferred 3-5-2 system and inability to reach his highest levels following his summer arrival contributed to the club allowing him to leave.

The Hawks boss said: ‘The system we’re going to play between now and the end of the season - I think we’ll play a 3-5-2 - and Baggie (Abdulai), by his own admission, doesn’t fit into that. He wanted to play more games so he’s gone to Salisbury with our best wishes.

‘Baggie’s undoing was when he came to us he didn’t appear fit in pre-season - he hardly had a pre-season - so he was always playing catch up.

‘It didn’t really happen for him with us or at Eastleigh so I think he’s also got to look at himself as well, to be honest.’