Folkestone Invicta face anxious wait over extent of forward Tom Derry’s eye injury sustained in 2-1 pre-season friendly defeat at Herne Bay

Folkestone have been left facing an anxious wait to find out the full extent of Tom Derry’s weekend injury.

Forward Derry sustained an eye problem shortly after the hour mark as Isthmian Premier Invicta were beaten 2-1 at Isthmian South East side Herne Bay in their latest pre-season friendly.

Asked how 29-year-old Derry now was, Folkestone boss Andy Drury, who also had taken off defender Joel Odeniran in the first half as a precaution, replied: “Not great.

“He’s been in and out of A&E. He took a bad poke in the eye, it’s gone quite deep.

“We will have to see how that settles down and how long he will be out for.”

Former Cray Wanderers and Tonbridge player Derry was signed last December.

He netted eight times as Invicta steered clear of relegation trouble and scored a hat-trick in a 4-0 victory at Whitstable this month.

“Tom has been a bit of a focal point up there,” said Drury. “He does well in both boxes.

“But Evans [Kouassi] is back and Dan Smith has done really well for us, so we do have other options.”

Invicta’s goal at Winch’s Field was a fifth of the summer for Smith. He also had bagged a late brace in last Tues-day’s 2-1 win at Sittingbourne.

“We kind of knew Herne Bay was a game where we would have to juggle things a little bit,” admitted Drury.

“We had four or five players out, so we had to juggle it with trialists and youth-team players. We always had an inkling it would be tough.

“But the boys got minutes and that’s the most important thing.

“It’s quite a nice 3G pitch. It’s probably one of the best around. It was quite a humid day, so it was sticky but it’s a good one.

“We got answers on some of the players that have been trialling with us.

“We found out where some of the youth-team boys are - and even some