Tonbridge Angels suffer injury blow with striker Noel Leighton likely to need an ankle operation | Forward search continues as Jay Saunders’ side prepare to meet Hemel Hempstead

Tonbridge Angels striker Noel Leighton looks set to require an ankle operation.

Leighton is back on the sidelines after an injury-hit start to his Angels career.

He joined in the summer having scored more than 40 goals for Three Bridges last season.

But he aggravated an old ankle injury during pre-season, missing the start of the National League South campaign.

And while he worked hard to get fit, he’s suffered a setback.

“It looks like he’ll need an operation,” said boss Jay Saunders.

“It’s not ideal and I feel for the lad.

“Unfortunately sometimes that’s how football goes.

“You can go through your whole career without any knocks and then you pick up something.

“It’s been a blow. We’ve not been able to see the best of him, we’ve not been able to get him fully fit.

“He went through a couple of weeks where he felt OK but as soon as he aggravated it again, he’s playing at 60%, which is no good to him or to us.

“He said to me, ‘I’m just so annoyed because I know what I can do and I just can’t show it’.

“He wanted to give it a go against Beckenham in the Kent Cup last week, strap it up and see if he could get through it.

“He tried and he scored a goal but afterwards he said, ‘I feel like I’m at 60-70%’.

“Against lower opposition you can get away with it but the higher you go it’s harder to carry an injury.

“I’ll find out more this week, I’d imagine, but I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t need an operation.”

Saunders was already in the market for forwards before Leighton’s injury and the search goes on.

A permanent deal for a player fell through last week when his club pulled the plug following an injury elsewhere in their squad.

A loan deal was also shelved with Saunders wanting to keep the player for longer than one month.

He’