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Burnley\u2019s survival hopes have suffered a significant blow with winger Luca Koleosho facing several months out with a knee injury.<\/p>\n
The 19-year-old summer signing from Espanyol has been one of Burnley\u2019s brightest lights so far this term and scored his first goal for the club in Saturday\u2019s 5-0 win over Sheffield United.<\/p>\n
But the Italy under-21 international was hurt in the first half of Tuesday\u2019s 1-0 defeat at Wolves and, after initially trying to carry on, was forced off with 36 minutes gone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s bad news for us,\u201d manager Vincent Kompany said. \u201cHe\u2019s going to be out for a while apparently\u2026I\u2019d like to think he\u2019ll still play this season but it might be towards the end of the season.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kompany would not disclose the precise nature of Koleosho\u2019s injury but the loss of the pacy and incisive young forward is a major setback for a team who, Saturday\u2019s big win aside, have struggled to score goals all season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll do everything we can to make sure that he\u2019ll get back healthy and ready to go again,\u201d Kompany added. \u201cI think now the key concern for us is to make sure he doesn\u2019t sustain any long-term damage because he\u2019s still young, we\u2019ll do everything right by him\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cPast the fact that it\u2019s a blow for a young player, I still think it\u2019s for someone else now to step up and wear the shirt in a way that Luca has done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these moments if you keep your head calm you can really get better, get stronger from these moments. I\u2019ve no doubt he\u2019ll come back stronger but for us short-term wise it\u2019s an undeniable blow.\u201d<\/p>\n
But when asked if Koleosho\u2019s injury could force Burnley into the January transfer market, Kompany said it was unlikely a club that signed 15 players in the summer would be busy next month.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe squad is still fairly large and we don\u2019t have unlimited resources,\u201d Kompany said. \u201cIf we can find a way to improve the squad drastically we\u2019ll do that but if it\u2019s just to add numbers that\u2019s not what we\u2019re out for\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t see how we could drastically go out there and drastically spend our way into staying in this division. It would have to be one or two really smart deals if we can find them.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re not necessarily in the strongest position when you\u2019re at the bottom of the league to make a case to a player to commit his future to you, but there might be an opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe key thing for us is also making sure the players we have now and the clear improvements you see, that they keep that progress level up.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe likes of Zeki (Amdouni) or Sander Berge, these guys, their performance has improved that much from two months ago and they\u2019ve got that much left to go, that could be the key factor for us in turning performances into results.\u201d<\/p>\n