Motherwell’s recent Viaplay Cup defeat isn’t their only worry as the club confronts the long-term absence of Arsenal’s on-loan striker, Mika Biereth.

In the wake of their recent Viaplay Cup defeat against St Mirren, Motherwell face another significant setback. The club’s on-loan striker from Arsenal, Mika Biereth, suffered a knee injury during the match.

Immediately after the match, the looming concern was that Biereth might be side-lined for several months due to the injury which followed an awful tackle from St Mirren’s Charles Dunne.

Sadly, those fears have now been confirmed.

Three months out

A statement on Motherwell’s site said, “Mika Biereth is set to spend up to three months on the sidelines. The Arsenal loanee sustained a knee injury in our Viaplay Cup match against St Mirren on Saturday.

“Scans have revealed a serious knee injury and means the striker will miss 12 weeks of the season.

“Our loan agreement with Arsenal has not changed as a result of this injury.”

Dunne reaction

Dunne expressed sympathy for Biereth before insistinmg he would never set out to injure an opponent. Writing on Twitter, Dunne said, “Not once have I ever gone out to injure anyone! I only had eyes for the ball and won the ball but unfortunately I slipped — that’s what caught him.

“I’ve reached out and text him, apologised and wished him all the best in his recovery.”

So that’s alright, then.

Immediate reaction

“There are two massive decisions,” Kettlewell said after the game about the referee.

“I don’t want to sit here as a guy who continually makes excuses, but there are two decisions in the game today.

“One is a stonewall penalty in the first half, Mikael Mandron hand-balls it [from Dan Casey’s shot] and I’m always a huge believer in a player’s reaction – he knows it has come off the hand, that his hand is outstretched, which is everything that the video shows.

“But I’m more upset with the challenge in the second half from Charles Dunne on Mika Biereth, it’s an absolutely horrendous tackle, two-footed tackle and straight-legged.

“I’ve now got a striker sitting on the treatment bed down there.

“I was instructed that these types of tackle were outlawed in the game.

“I’m not throwing Willie [Collum, the referee] under the bus, he’s one of our top officials, and rightfully so, but I asked the question about the penalty at half-time and he says ‘we have no VAR’.

“We don’t get the red card in the second half when it’s a horrendous tackle, it’s an absolute shocker, red card all day long – but the excuse is that they don’t have VAR.

“But I was on the understanding that if VAR shuts down, if we didn’t have VAR, then the referee referees the game, like we were told it was only going to be an aid to help referees get more correct decisions.

“But when you see these things appear on the pitch, you still have to count the cost as a referee.

“I’m counting the cost. I’m really angered by the tackle that comes onto a striker, which by the way, as a young lad that we have on loan from Arsenal.

“We talk about protecting these creative players and all the rest of it, but I think that’s just words sometimes, we have to do more to try and protect them, because it’s a bad, bad tackle.

“We don’t know the extent of the injury, but he’s struggling to put weight on it and that would generally tell you this is going to get worse through time.

“The one thing I know now is that he’s struggling and has a fair bit of pain on the inside of his knee, so we’re going to have to strip it back and find out how bad it is.

“I know it becomes untidy with a few bits of contact, but that’s not just the worst tackle in this game, that’s one of the worst ones I’ve seen since the start of the season, undoubtedly.”

Biereth had got his loan with Motherwell off to the best possible start with a goal and assist on his debut.