PLAYER-MANAGER Roy O’Brien has become the second Dorchester Town defender to be ruled out for the rest of the campaign in the space of a week.

Gary Bowles’ season came to an end after straining knee ligaments in last Tuesday’s Dorset Senior Cup final defeat while O’Brien was discovered to have broken a metatar-sal bone after going off at half-time in Saturday’s 1-0 loss at home to Newport County.

The Magpies’ chief, whose side visit Weston-super-Mare today (3pm), immediately went to hospital for an x-ray and will now be in a cast for up to six weeks.

Speaking after the defeat to County, assistant-boss Ashley Vick-ers said: “Roy’s got a great deal of swelling on the top of his foot. He came off at half-time and it was not a pretty sight.

“He played on an injury and went through the pain barrier as a necessity really. He won’t be playing at Weston-super-Mare but I’ll be back hoping to carry on in the same vein and making sure that we’re organised. I’ve got every faith in us getting a positive result at Weston.”

The Magpies, without a Blue Square South win in five games and without a goal in 632 minutes, are now only four points clear of the relegation zone after Thurrock earned a draw at Welling on Good Friday.

Despite losing O’Brien for the last three games of the season, Dorchester have regained the services of forward Ivan Forbes.

The 22-year-old was not expected to return until the summer after suffering cruciate knee damage in the opening day victory at Braintree eight months ago. But he replaced O’Brien on Saturday and could feature this afternoon.

Vickers said: “Ivan has worked very hard to get back from a severe injury and made all the right noises in training.”

Vickers also paid tribute to Mark Jermyn, who notched his 400th appearance for the club on Saturday. He added: “What an achievement. He’s a club stalwart and what a player he is too.”