Nathan Doyle has played his last game for City.

The talented teenage defender was ready to extend his loan spell at Valley Parade for the rest of the season.

But that has gone out the window after he was stretchered off near the end of yesterday's 1-0 home defeat to Doncaster.

Doyle collapsed in agony with a knee ligament injury which could sideline him for up to three months, scuppering City's plans to borrow him from Derby any longer.

"He has been assessed and, at the moment, they're talking six weeks out - but he's going for a scan and it might end up eight to 12 weeks," said Colin Todd.

"He would have been staying with us, because I'd had permission to take him, but now we have to look at the length of injury and that's not going to happen."

Doyle's absence is a hammer blow for Todd and leaves the City boss with a further unwanted headache at a time when all the club's loan deals are up. Lee Holmes, whose City future is also in the air, again missed out with an ankle injury and has only an outside chance of being fit to face Cheltenham on Saturday.

The loss to in-form Doncaster left City 14th in League One - and was the seventh time they have failed to score in the last nine games.

Todd reflected: "We've huffed and puffed and had opportunities but, at the moment, we don't look like making that breakthrough.

"But let's get rid of all the doom and gloom at this football club. Those players go out there and do their best to try and win games and sometimes I don't think it's appreciated as much as it should be.

"We didn't start off with a lot of purpose and found ourselves a goal down early on. Then we had 75 minutes to get back in the game and just couldn't get that equaliser.

"But the effort was there. I can't be too critical of those players and I won't be. We just have to pull together because there's no magic formula.

"It was not so long ago Doncaster were having a bad time but they've got players who cost a lot of money. We certainly didn't deserve to win but I felt we did enough to get a draw."