Ruel Sotiriou was forced off in the first half of Bristol Rovers 1-0 defeat to StevenageSport

Daniel Hargraves Bristol Rovers reporter

19:57, 21 Apr 2025

Bristol Rovers striker Ruel Sotiriou was forced off injured in their defeat to Stevenage(Image: Jake Manuell/PPAUK)

Inigo Calderon has admitted that he doesn’t yet know the extent of the injury that forced Ruel Sotiriou off in the first half of Bristol Rovers‘ 1-0 defeat at home to Stevenage on Easter Monday.

The Gas’ top scorer had to come off for Isaac Hutchinson just after the half-hour mark with what appeared to be an ankle issue.

Rovers are already without Promise Omochere and Chris Martin for the remainder of the season while Cardiff City loanee Michael Reindorf hasn’t played for the club since February 22.

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Asked for the latest on Sotiriou’s injury post-match, Calderon said: “I haven’t asked but I think it was something in his ankle because I could see he has a bruise on his ankle. I don’t know what happened, to be fair.

“Hopefully it’s not too bad, but it’s quite clear that he has a big bruise on his ankle now.”

The 24-year-old is Rovers’ current top scorer with six goals and saw arguably the Gas’ best chance of the game against Stevenage fall to him as a firm effort was deflected narrowly wide of the far post.

After season-ending injuries to Omochere and Martin, a great deal of expectation for goals has fallen on the shoulders of Sotiriou, along with 20-year-old Gatlin O’Donkor.

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Despite not looking fully fit in recent matches, O’Donkor has been a regular starter and played the full 90 minutes against Stevenage as Rovers sought an equaliser.

If Sotiriou is ruled out of the Gas’ final two matches – at home to Reading and away to Blackpool – that would leave Rovers with O’Donkor, 19-year-old Reindorf and 17-year-old Ollie Dewsbury as their only remaining natural strikers.

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“In normal circumstances, he will not play be playing that many minutes because you could see that he was really tired the last 30 minutes,” Calderon told Bristol Live when asked about O’Donkor’s fitness. “But if I take off the only striker that we have, it’s like, ‘what are you doing?’

“I mean, we are where we are and we have what we have, and that means that players have to play for longer than maybe they should or players have to be in different positions as we did today.”

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