BRENDON King may be forced to bring in reinforcements after Ben Gerring and Sam Poole both suffered head injuries in a horrific mid-air collision at league leaders Brackley Town on Saturday.

The shocking incident happened midway through the first half in the 3-1 defeat and nearly led to Gerring requiring plastic surgery on a deep cut just above his left eyelid.

Speaking yesterday, Terras’ boss Brendon King said: “In all my years involved in football I have never known a team lose both centre-backs in the same incident like that.

“It was a horrific clash of heads but thankfully both lads seem to be recovering well.

“In the end Sam travelled home with the rest of us and had his cut glued when we got back while Ben stayed at the hospital in Banbury until 10pm.

“At first they thought Ben might require plastic surgery but in the end they felt stitches would do.

“After it happened, he was in and out of consciousness for a while and it was horrendous to see but everyone at Brackley was really good.

“When you see things like that, and particularly what happened to Bolton Wanderers midfielder Fabrice Muamba, football quickly becomes insignificant.”

When asked how long Poole and Gerring could be out for, King added: “It is too early to say. Sam is not too bad, so I think he will be fine, but Ben’s cut was a lot worse, so it might be a case where we have to bring in some cover.”

Elliot Sandy opened the scoring for Brackley before Steve Diggin added two just after the break, which included one from the penalty spot following a foul by Tom Manley. War-ren Byerley then grabbed a late consolation for the Terras.

King said: “They got a bit lucky in the goalmouth for their first goal and to be honest we were a bit unfortunate to go behind at that stage as I felt we were the ones on top.

“We then had to completely reshuffle things, following the injuries to Ben and Sam, and did well to see it out to the break. However, we then conceded early in the second half, which was a huge blow.

“The cross that led to the goal was fantastic, so there was not much we could do about that, but unfortunately Tom then gave away a penalty a couple of minutes later and that made it 3-0.

“The lads could have easily dropped their heads after that but credit to them because they kept going and refused to cave in. Craig Duff had an effort cleared off the line and then Warren pulled one back towards the end.

“We got beat 3-1 but it certainly was not a battering and at times we matched them and played some good football.

“The fact they are now five points clear at the top of the table speaks for itself, and they have a lot of experience in their side, but our performance proved we are not far away.”

The Terras, who travel to Bedford Town on Saturday, have dropped one place to 13th in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division where they remain just five points clear of the drop-zone.