Injury update on Marvin Ekpiteta, Daniel Gretarsson, Kevin Stewart and Gary Madine ahead of Blackpool's game against Burton Albion

The midfielder was forced off the pitch during the first-half of Saturday’s goalless draw against Fleetwood Town.

The 27-year-old went in for a 50-50 challenge with Dan Batty, who landed on the former Hull City man as he hit the ground.

Stewart had to be replaced by Matty Virtue and was later seen exiting the stadium on crutches.

“We’ve not had an update yet,” Critchley said, speaking this morning.

“He’s going for a scan this afternoon, so he’s at home resting and he’s got his foot up on the couch trying to reduce the swelling in his ankle.

“When he goes for the scan later today, we’ll know more about that diagnosis.

“I try to prepare myself mentally for the worst and then any good news makes me feel better.

“I don’t want to speculate, it could be just a bit of bruising and a bit of a sprain and he could be okay fairly quickly, but if it’s ligament damage or worse than that, it could be a number of weeks.”

Losing Stewart at such a pivotal stage in the season comes as a major blow for the Seasiders, who are already without Daniel Gretarsson, Marvin Ekpiteta, Keshi Anderson and Gary Madine

But Critchley is hopeful one or two of those might be back sooner rather than later.

“Marvin is going for a scan today, an update scan to see where he’s at. Hopefully if we get good news from that we can push him a bit quicker,” Pool’s head coach added.

“He feels fine, everything has gone okay so far, so fingers crossed we get good news tonight and we can step him up a bit.

“Daniel Gretarsson is back in full training and so far, so good with him.

“Gary is just taking a little longer than we’d hoped. It’s day-to-day with Gary, one day he feels good and the next day he can just feel a little bit of irritation.

“That’s proving a bit more complicated than we would have hoped.

“He can go a day or two where he’s feeling fine and he looks really good, but then when you push him that little bit further it doesn’t feel quite right.

“It’s really frustrating for him. He’s desperate to get back out and play, he wants to be a part of the team and he’s itching to get back.”

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