Jersey: Injured hooker Joe Buckle faces 'minimum eight months' out

Buckle signed a new two-year contract at Jersey back in March

Jersey chairman Bill Dempsey has said hooker Joe Buckle faces a "minimum of eight months" out following knee reconstruction surgery.

The former Bath player picked up the injury during the Islanders' 40-29 Championship loss at Bristol in April.

"It's going to be a long time before he gets back in, certainly a minimum of eight months and possibly up to 11 months," Dempsey told BBC Radio Jersey.

"The operation went well but it's the timescale of getting it back together."

Buckle joined Jersey in January 2013, originally on loan, and played as a flanker before making the switch to hooker.

He missed much of last year's pre-season through injury and now looks like being sidelined for most of the 2015/16 campaign.

"We obviously have Martin Garcia-Veiga and Nick Selway, who covered that position last year, but we may have to do something else there too," added Dempsey.

"(The squad) is where we want it to be - we certainly haven't been able to go out and be the big spenders. We know what we can afford to do and Harvey (head coach Harvey Biljon) does a very good job with that money."