Steven Hammell targets signings after Jake Carroll’s serious knee injury

Steven Hammell has stepped up his recruitment plans after landing the Motherwell manager’s job on a permanent basis and being dealt a serious injury blow.

Hammell has been left without an experienced natural left-back after Jake Carroll received bleak news on the knee injury he suffered last week.

With Nathan McGinley still struggling with the fitness problem that has kept him out since March, Hammell will need to recruit a new player for his specialist position.

On Carroll’s injury, which came as a result of an awkward landing in training, Hammell said: “It’s a ruptured patellar tendon so it’s pretty serious.

“Jake’s a great boy, a good player. He was one we had earmarked for improvement. He wasn’t playing at his full capacity and we saw in the short space of time that there was a lot of improvement to come from Jake. I think he would admit that himself.

“He is going to be a big loss for us and I am absolutely gutted for the boy. He will be lucky to play this season.

“Nathan is still going to be out for a period of time.”

Hammell was in recruitment meetings before and after his first media conference as permanent manager and ahead of his final training session before a trip to Aberdeen on Saturday.

“We have made enquiries about players,” he said. “It’s tough.

“Recruitment is key, recruitment is so, so important, and bringing the right person in. I would rather sign a seven or eight out of 10 player that is going to fit in with what we are trying to do here and fit in with the culture and environment, than a nine or a 10 that’s going to give us problems.

“We need to be clever with it. It’s difficult with how late we are but when we do it, of course it’s never going to be perfect and there might be some kind of risk