James Olayinka has suffered ankle ligament damage, which could hurt his chances of extending his loan with Southend United.

James Olayinka went down with an ankle problem last Saturday, which his manager Mark Molesley described as a ‘nasty one’ at the time. Subsequent assessments haven’t brought any good news, unfortunately.

“We’re still waiting on the definitive from the scan, but he has got ankle ligament damage in there,” Molesley said. “We’re just waiting on the severity on that now and we should have some news on that by the end of play today.

“It’s not a short-term one but clearly we have to wait for the swelling to settle down and a few other bits just to determine how long he’ll be out.”

The injury has come at an awkward time, as Southend United were working on extending Olayinka’s loan spell to the end of the season. The midfielder only initially signed a deal with the club until January.

Given there hasn’t been any announcement of an extension, we can assume it’s still not done. Olayinka will certainly miss the rest of the month, so it’s very possible they decide to end his loan spell early.

Of course, if the additional test results come back positive and Olayinka only needs a few weeks out, Molesley may reason that it’s worth keeping him for the final months of the season.

We’ll see, but with Southend United’s precarious position at the bottom of League Two, I wouldn’t bet on them taking many risks this month.