Dartford captain Elliot Bradbrook faces weeks on the sidelines after being stretchered off on the opening day of the season.

There was immediate concern for the midfielder when he lay prone 15 minutes from the end of Saturday’s game against Wealdstone.

Manager Tony Burman feared Bradbrook, who had earlier netted the Darts’ first goal of the campaign, had broken his leg. An x-ray revealed ankle ligament damage instead but the skipper may still be out for some time.

Burman said: "Everyone was fearing the worst because he stayed down. When you see a stretcher going on, it doesn’t look good.

"Fortunately for us, it’s not as bad as first feared. We felt there may have been a break when it first happened but it’s been confirmed there isn’t.

"Although we’re going to lose him for a little while, it doesn’t seem as long as we first thought. It’s a minimum, definitely, of two weeks and it’s anyone’s guess after that.

"When people do the ligaments, you’ve got to get the bruising out, get the swelling down and that usually takes two weeks in itself.

"He’s not going to be playing for two weeks and it could be a lot longer – we don’t know."

Bradbrook scored 18 goals last season and his instinctive strike on Saturday was the mark of a man in form.

Burman said: "He had a decent pre-season and his fitness has been good. I played him a little bit further forward on Saturday because Andy Pugh was injured.

"The problem is that we’ve got a lot of games this month so he’s going to miss a few games. There’s no break in midweek.

"We’ll keep our fingers crossed and hopefully it’s not as long as expected."

Read the full story in the Dartford Messenger.