IAN Evatt says he “fears the worst” on George Johnston’s fitness after the Wanderers defender limped out of this afternoon’s friendly win at Bamber Bridge.

The centre-back was hurt in a challenge near halfway and had to be helped off the pitch but left the Sir Tom Finney Stadium in a leg brace and is now facing scans to assess damage to his knee.

Evatt hopes that his initial concern proves unfounded but with Eoin Toal also likely to miss the start of the season with an ankle injury, he could now be two defensive options down.

“There is no assessment we can make right now but the mechanism of the injury does not look good,” he explained.

“We will have to see but at the moment we are fearing the worst.”

Wanderers won the game with a Randell Williams goal in the second half – but had created several presentable opportunities and could have made the game more comfortable than it proved to be.

Bamber Bridge’s trialist goalkeeper made a string of top saves to keep the Whites at bay and both Victor Adeboyejo and Dan Nlundulu missed chances one-on-one.

Evatt admitted, however, that Johnston’s injury was the defining note of a game played in torrential rain for the last half an hour.

“There was a lot of rustiness, a lot of tiredness, but the most disappointing thing was George’s injury – we are worried about that right now and we will have to see how it pans out over the next few days,” he said.

“There is lots to work on, the players have worked incredibly hard, but you could see there was a lack of sharpness.

“It did look like last season at times with the amount of chances we created but didn’t score. We made their keeper look great.

“There are things we can work on but the big thing is the injury.”

First half team: Baxter, Jones, John, Santos, Johnston, Dacres-Cogley, Morley, Thomason, Adeboyejo, Jerome, Pettrifer.

Second half team: Coleman, MJ Williams, Sadlier, Sheehan, Bodvarsson, Nlundulu, Iredale, Forrester, Dempsey, R Williams, Khumbeni.

Subs: Conway, Tweedley.