LEWIS Macari will bounce back from his horror injury at Colchester United.
That’s the view of Notts County boss Martin Paterson, after the defender was stretchered off with a serious leg injury in their 1-0 win at the JobServe Community Stadium.
Macari suffered the sickening injury in trying to make a challenge on U’s winger Owura Edwards just before the half hour mark in the League Two clash and after nearly 10 minutes of treatment on the pitch, was taken to hospital by ambulance.
Macari, the grandson of former Manchester United and Scotland legend Lou Macari, now faces a long road to recovery but Paterson is sure he will recover.
38 – Macari is stretchered off with an injury sustained as he bravely won a sliding challenge.
Sending all our love and support to Lewis, who is replaced by Ness.
Paterson said: “It was a really tough one to see – I was right in front of it.
“Lewis Macari embodies everything I think that this team is.
“He works hard and every single day, he comes in and does his best.
“He never shirks a tackle and has not given me one moment of dip, in terms of his attitude.
“He’s the salt of the earth, the boy is.
“We as a football club supported him through a tough time and he’s paid us back with his endeavour and his quality, because he’s underrated.
“But now we have a real common goal, don’t we?
“This is the start of that common goal, to do it for those ones who can’t be there to do it.
“That comes with a bit of responsibility for all of us.
“We have to flip this really bad moment in terms of him hurting himself to a positive for the football club and for him, to give him the chance of maybe play at a higher level.
“Let’s use it as fuel and also send our best wishes to the boy and his family, who I know very well.
“He’ll bounce back, don’t worry about that – he’s tougher than old leather.”
Nick Tsaroulla’s strike just after half-time proved the difference between the two sides, as Notts County won to go into the final game of the season two points off the League Two automatic promotion places.
Paterson said: “Today was a difficult game, because Colchester had nothing to play for in terms of ambition of anything but that’s when it’s difficult, because sometimes they play with a freedom, sometimes they play with a bit of a lull.
“They’re hard games to navigate and we did.
“This will give us the boost I believe to kick on and really attack next week.
“I have to be hard on them at times.
“For some of them, the pressure of what we want to achieve is new to them but you have to play under pressure and I thought today we recycled the performance and looked like we have done for good parts of the season.
Colchester United 0 Notts County 1 – as it happened
“We worked really hard as a group on stuff that we needed to just cut out, regardless of who wears the shirt.
“So, no excuses, we had a bump and we responded with a really good, professional performance.
“I thought we should have scored more and that’s for us to work on in the week.
“There’s different reasons as to why we’re still chasing compared to where I think we should be.
“Most of them sound like excuses but one of them is that sometimes in tight games, we’ve just come out the wrong side of it.
“Today, I think we should have taken the game away from them with chances but we did the basics to guarantee that one goal was enough.
“But I thought the lads were excellent; they’ve been brilliant all week.
“They’ve been feeling it but that’s how you prepare for pressure football.”
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