Rob Elliot stressed the need for his Gateshead side to give Greg Olley ‘the best support’ possible after a serious injury to The Heed’s captain overshadowed a 2-0 win at Woking.
Olley was taken off via stretcher and transported to hospital by ambulance after he was on the receiving end of a heavy challenge 15 minutes into the game, and Elliot said after full time that his captain remains his primary concern.
“What we do know is that he’s in the right place,” said Elliot.
“He’s gone to hospital and we’ll just have to see what the situation is, we’ll have to assess that as we go.
“We’re into unknown territory here with everything, so we just have to get around Greg to make sure he’s ok and give him the best support.
“The first thing is that Frazer Bell and the doctor and physio at Woking were fantastic in getting him organised, and making sure after a lengthy spell that Greg was in a comfortable place.
“I’m absolutely gutted and devastated because there’s no need for it to be in that situation.
“We just have to make sure that we’re there for Greggy, support him and take it from there.
“Greggy wanted us to play the game and carry on. It was more the lads that dictated it, I was quite distressed and I wanted to call the game off.
“The lads and Greggy made the right decision, and I thought we went about the game really well, but it’s kind of hard to talk about the football after that to be honest.
“We did what we needed to do. Becky [Mark Beck] showed that different element that we have in terms of putting threat into the box, and it was just a case of wearing them down and being professional and making sure we didn’t slip up.
“We’ve got to learn with Becky that just because he’s on the pitch, we don’t need to be direct.
“We need to get into the right areas for him to be effective in terms of our crossing, and he’s obviously a very good footballer in terms of his link up play and the way he moves the ball.
“We’ve got a lot of different options in the forward areas, and for any problem we can always try and find a solution between us all.
“I definitely saw an evolution in the team and the squad – I’m as pleased as I possibly can be given the circumstances.”
