Carlisle United goalkeeper Magnus Norman faces a spell on the sidelines after suffering a leg injury in Saturday’s 2-0 loss at home to Forest Green.
Subsequently United boss Chris Beech has brought in 28-year-old Adam Smith to cover his absence.
Beech said: “Magnus had that collision when the midfield player went straight in on him when he was through, and it was brave goalkeeping, but he’s found out that he’s broken a little bone in his leg and damaged a ligament.
“He’ll be out for a while. Testament to him is the way he stood up and got on with it to help with his team mates at the time, because he thought it was just a knock and that he would recover.
“He felt it was just a bang on his shin and he got up and carried on, and it wasn’t until afterwards in the dressing room that he started to think it might be a bit more than that.
“That shows the type of player he is, but unfortunately the type of injury he’s picked up now means he’ll be out for a period of time.”
Smith linked up with the Blues on Monday, played in the Reserves on Tuesday and was at training today with the rest of the squad.
He is a product of the Middlesbrough youth set-up before joining Leicester City in 2010, signing his first senior professional contract a year later.
Several loan spells followed, including Lincoln City and Mansfield, but he never played for the Foxes first team and his big break came when he was released and joined Northampton Town in 2015.
He was first choice for two years and clocked up 86 appearances before switching to Bristol Rovers (28 games) for two seasons.
More recently he has been with Forest Green, but spent most of the time on loan with Yeovil Town, and was a virtual ever-present last season.
On the move for Smith, manager Beech said: “Sometimes things happen and you have to react. We never do anything for fun, there’s always a reason, and we need to make sure we’re competitive and secure.
“Adam trained on Monday, played on Tuesday, and he’ll be with us again today. We’ll have to wait and see how that all pans out.
“There are a lot of things in football, and I suppose in life as well, that you don’t plan for, and this is one of those situations.
“All you can do is move quickly to resolve it when it comes, which we’re looking to do. In terms of the injury, I have a few examples of a little bit of a lack of protection which I’ve shared with the referee’s association, but that one with Magnus was a 50-50 challenge and I don’t think the lad meant to do anything to cause harm.
“Ultimately Magnus will now spend time on the side-lines, but it is commendable that he looked to deal with it at the time, thinking that he was shaking off a knock rather than suffering from something more serious.
“He’ll work closely with our physio now and he’ll go through his rehab programme in the right way.”
