Darlington’s promotion hopes suffered a blow last night when it was revealed that striker Amar Purewal will be missing for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury.

Purewal, Quakers’ second highest scorer this season with 13 goals, has undergone an operation and been told he will not play again for at least six months.

That takes him through until the beginning of next season, by which time top-of-the-table Darlington hope to have won promotion in the former Durham City forward’s absence.

He has missed the past six matches since sustaining the injury on December 20 during the latter stages of a 2-2 draw at home to Radcliffe Borough, but manager Martin Gray is now without him for the final 16 fixtures.

“He’d be a big miss to anybody’s team,” said Gray. “He gets you 20-25 goals every year and was on track to do it again this year. That’s football, we’ve got to keep on going.

“Initially we were hoping that it might settle down, but once he got it scanned the injury showed up and they say it’s six to eight months for a cruciate these days.

“He’s had the operation now, he’s got that out of the way, but initially I think he was shocked and upset.

“He’s back on his feet now though, the operation went very well. It was done at Nuffield Hospital in Stockton by a top guy, someone well-respected, so he was in good hands. I sent our physios in to see the operation, it was a good experience for them.”

Purewal has been one of the first names on Gray’s team sheet having signed in the summer of 2012, since when he has scored 58 goals in all competitions.

He reached his half century in October with a hat-trick when Darlington defeated Harrogate RA, the team Quakers play away to tomorrow.

“He’s got better and better since he’s been at the football club,” added Gray.

“He’s now got to have a full recovery and we’ll get him back involved next year. He’s a great kid and what I like about him is that he’s got better because he’s listened and he wants to learn.

“He’s a good clubman, he’s proud to play for Darlington. He’ll be coming to home games till. He’s on crutches at the moment, but once he’s off them he’ll be able to get about more, but we want him to stay involved and be around us.

“One of the reasons we brought Nathan Cartman in was because we knew Amar was going to be out long-term rather than short-term, so we had to get some business done.”

Cartman is sure to start tomorrow against the club he left to join Darlington last month, while Gray expects to have at least one new face in his squad, including a right-back on loan from a Premier League club.