June 23, 2016 By Sahr Morris Jr.

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

The 28-year-old defender, who is set to miss most of Thistle matches in the upcoming season, is positive and looking forward to a 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,” he added.

Dumbuya suffered the injury over the weekend and at this early stage it is not possible to gauge exactly how long he will be ruled out of action, but such an injury usually keeps players out for up to six months or more at worst.

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.