Harrogate Town's former Southampton FC defender Kayne Ramsay will have to wait for surgery on horrific facial injury

Harrogate Town defender Kayne Ramsay warms up before Harrogate Town's League Two clash with Carlisle United at Brunton Park. Pictures: Matt Kirkham

So severe is the swelling around Kayne Ramsay’s broken eye socket, the Harrogate Town defender will have to wait until next week before he is able to have corrective surgery on the horrific facial injury he sustained at Carlisle United.

The 22-year-old former Southampton right-back was hurt during the dying minutes of Saturday’s 1-0 League Two success at Brunton Park following a collision with home forward Omari Patrick.

Ramsay, who left the field covered in his own blood, suffered a fractured eye socket, cheekbone and jaw and also broke his nose when his head was crushed against the turf by the weight of his opponent’s body. He will not play for the Sulphurites again this season.

Rachel McGeachie, Town’s head of medical, has provided an update on the pacy defender’s condition and says that he is doing surprisingly well given the state his face has been left in.

Harrogate Town right-back Kayne Ramsay in action during Saturday's 1-0 success at Carlisle United.

"Kayne is doing okay, but his eye is swollen up so big currently that he can’t see out of it and on the right side of his jaw, his upper and lower teeth don’t meet, so he can’t really eat or talk,” she told the Harrogate Advertiser.

“So, he’s on a diet of soup, smoothies and ice cream for the time being, which he’s not too happy about, but he will survive.

“Having been scanned and treated at Cumberland Infirmary after the game on Saturday he was discharged and referred to LGI [Leeds General Infirmary] closer to home where he saw a consultant on Sunday morning. The doctor said it is important to wait until all the swelling has gone down before he operates, which will probably be early next week.

"It’s a really clever surgery where they will go in and use little metal screws and a metal plate to stabilise the damage to the bones in his face.

"But, he will be non-contact for 12 weeks from surgery meaning that he’s going to be ruled out for the rest of the season.”

On the incident itself and the bloody aftermath which saw Ramsay taken to the nearest accident & emergency department in an ambulance, McGeachie explained: “Kayne’s gone in for a tackle and ended up with his head near the floor.

"The Carlisle player has jumped to avoid the challenge but then his full body landed on Kayne, effectively crushing his head into the ground.

"He has ended up with a fractured cheek bone and eye socket, a broken nose and a displaced jaw. He lost a lot of blood, so much so that it looked like there had been a massacre in the physio room.

"He was in a lot of pain, and we realised quite quickly that we couldn’t control the level of pain he was suffering so had to call an ambulance. If a player does an ACL [anterior cruicate ligament] or suffers a serious injury to their leg or body, there are strong painkillers that we can administer pitch-side to manage that.

"But because we didn’t know what was going on with his head at that stage, we were unable to administer those kind of drugs, so he had to manage for around four hours with just paracetamol.”

Speaking immediately after Saturday’s win over the Cumbrians, Town boss Simon Weaver said that seeing one of his players leave the field with such a nasty injury took the gloss off what was a fine result for his struggling side.

"Kayne is in a bad way unfortunately, which has flattened us a bit,” he told BBC Radio York.

"There’s the jubilation of winning, but then one of the key members of the back-line, who was outstanding today, is going off to A&E bleeding a lot and shaken up by it.”

Weaver’s opposite number Paul Simpson described Ramsay’s initial challenge on Patrick as “reckless”, though the Carlisle boss did go on to wish Town’s right-back well.

“I thought it was a bad tackle on Omari, but unfortunately their lad Ramsay’s face is smashed in,” he said.

"I don’t know how that happened but it looked a bit of a reckless challenge on Omari so he is sore as well.

"For me, it was a dangerous tackle. Hopefully Omari’s not too bad and hopefully Ramsay’s not too bad as well, but there was a lot of blood.”

Saturday’s contest was settled by experienced United defender Paul Huntington’s bizarre 82nd-minute own goal, which gifted Town their first League Two success in six attempts.

That result moves the Sulphurites up one place to 20th in the table and keeps them three points clear of the relegation zone.