• Mustapha Dumbuya pictured in action for Sierra Leone is set to miss a large chunk of the new season

Sierra Leone and Partick Thistle right-back, Mustapha Dumbuya is hoping to return to football action soonest after successfully underwent Achilles tendon operation.

The former Portsmouth defender suffered the injury over the weekend and underwent surgery on Monday night.

The severity of the injury means the 28-year-old defender is set to miss most of Thistle matches in the upcoming season.

However, agile right-back is positive and looking forward to speedy rehabilitation.

“Thank you all for the kind messages, I haven’t lost my smile, so please don’t feel sympathy for me, just another journey that I have to face. I’ll be back stronger both mentally and physically by God’s grace,” the former Notts County and Crawley Town defender posted on his Facebook page.

“Some may know I’ve had an Achilles problem for a while and it popped, underwent my operation on Monday and it was a successful, now looking forward to my rehabilitation and playing again thank you all once again.”

Thistle assistant manager Scott Paterson has reacted in dismay over the sad news and he told the UK Evening Time that they will now be forced to bring in an extra player to cope with the loss of the dynamic Sierra Leone international.

“It’s a massive blow for the team, the club and the player himself,” Paterson said. “He’s a massively important player for us, and it’s so disappointing because we thought he had got over that little spell of niggly injuries that had kept him out last season.

“We’re hugely disappointed but sometimes these things happen in football and we just have to get on with it. It means that we’ll have to get another defender in, that’s pretty obvious and not just one but possibly two with this news.

Follow the writer @morrisjr88

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