Cameron Dummigan rushed to hospital after suspected ankle injury as Patrick McEleney set for scan next week

Dummigan, who missed the early part of last season with a serious hamstring injury, fell awkwardly at the end of the first half in Sligo and was stretchered off the pitch before being taken to hospital.

Higgins wasn't in a position to explain the severity of the injury directly after the match but reckons the former Dundalk man hurt his ankle in a challenge with a Sligo player shortly before the half-time break.

"I don't really know," said Higgins when quizzed on the nature of Dummigan's injury. "I think he's won the ball and landed really awkwardly on his ankle I think. I haven't seen the incident back but I think it was an awkward landing."

Higgins also said he had no hesitation in naming skipper McEleney in his starting line-up after recovering from a groin injury and revealed the midfielder was brought ashore on 40 minutes after sustaining 'a different injury'.

The Shantallow man has enjoyed no luck with injuries in recent months having undergone successful surgery on both his Achilles in the off-season.

He looked in top shape heading into the opening day clash with Drogheda before breaking down with a slight groin strain and Higgins wasn't prepared to take a risk on his key midfield man for that 2-1 win at Brandywell last week.

Having assessed him during the week Higgins felt McEleney was ready to make his first start of the campaign but disaster struck five minutes before the half-time interval.

"We'll know more in the morning," said Higgins. "Dummigan has gone to hospital and Patrick will get a scan on Monday - it's a different injury so we'll see. At this minute in time I can't give any sort of concrete information on it.

"He's done a lot of running earlier in the week and trained with the team the last few days and got through it no problem. It's a different injury. It's horrible. He's had the best preseason he's probably ever had to be honest. He played in all the games but we won't know until we get him scanned next week.

"Seven weeks out of eight in preseason, he only missed a week really which was last week and he was back running really in the week and did everything and trained all week so we had absolutely no doubts and this is the type of place where we want to get him on the pitch."

The loss of the key duo ahead of a double header with two of the expected title challengers, Shamrock Rovers and St Patrick's Athletic next week has left Higgins cursing his luck but he's confident he has enough quality options having watched Jordan McEneff and Adam O'Reilly come off the bench and bring 'a real drive to the team' in the second half.

"It definitely doesn't help when you have key personnel [injured]. There's Dummigan, [Sadou] Diallo, McEleney now out of that area of the pitch so it's definitely a blow but if you can finish the game with a midfield three of [Will] Patching, O'Reilly and McEneff then you're doing okay as well. We've got real talent so we've no doubt they'll produce.

"I thought both of them [McEneff and O'Reilly] brought a real drive to the team when they came on and that's what we'll need in the coming weeks.

"When you play Friday, Monday you want as many players available to you as possible but regardless we will still have a good enough team on the pitch to pick up points."