Exeter's Wildschut season-ending injury ‘massive blow’

Yanic Wildschut scored twice in 35 appearances in all competitions for Exeter City last season

Exeter City boss Gary Caldwell says Yanic Wildschut will get the best care after being ruled out for the season with a knee injury.

The 32-year-old winger was carried off in City's final pre-season friendly against Eastleigh earlier this month after damaging knee ligaments.

It came after the Suriname international had signed a new one-year contract after initially joining in September 2023.

"It's a massive blow for him first and foremost, he worked extremely hard in the off season," Caldwell told BBC Radio Devon.

"He looked back to the old Yanic from way back at Wigan - that power and ability in one v one situations was there, so it's a huge blow for him.

"But we will support him as a club, the medical team we have here are fantastic.

"I'm sure the boys will look after him, he's a really popular figure in the dressing room.

"We have to look to obviously find replacements within the squad, and also looking at the wider picture with the window still being open, we have to look to see how we address that and how we restructure the recruitment so that we have the squad that we need moving forward."

Fellow winger Demetri Mitchell is due back towards the end of September after suffering a similar injury last October.

But Caldwell says the long-term absence of Wildschut has seen him have to re-think his transfer priorities before the window closes.

"With Deme waiting in the wings and hopefully coming back maybe later in September, we believe that that kind of replacement is on that side," he said.

"I think we can assess as a club where we are and potentially get one extra because of Yanic.

“There's definitely a couple of players we want to bring in, then we'll see where we are and speak with the club about finances and see what we need to do right up until the end of the window.”