Derry City striker Liam Boyce undergoes surgery and set for lengthy spell on sidelines

​The 34-year-old's debut season with Derry City was cut short in early August 2025 after he sustained a hamstring injury during extra-time in the FAI Cup third-round loss to Drogheda United at Brandywell.

Boyce scored 11 goals in 26 appearances in all competitions for the Candy Stripes before surgery forced him to miss the final nine matches of the campaign.

The former Northern Ireland international was named on the bench for Derry's President's Cup Final win over Shamrock Rovers on January 31st as he edged closer to a comeback, but he hasn't appeared since.

City boss Lynch revealed that Boyce sustained a torn calf that will rule him out for up to nine weeks. On Monday, he also had an arthroscopy on his knee to clear debris within the knee joint from the ACL injury he suffered at Hearts in 2022.

"'Boycie' actually has an operation on Monday," revealed Lynch. "He has two injuries at the moment. He has a slice on his calf and he needs his knee cleaned out. He's getting his knee cleaned out on Monday and then he's probably still about eight or nine weeks away with the calf injury."

It's a huge blow for Lynch who has been frustrated with his side's lack of cutting edge in front of goal during their opening three games. Derry scored four goals during those fixtures, however, a four point return could've been higher had they been more ruthless in front of the posts.

Dipo Akinyemi is returning from injury and has been introduced as a second half substitute in the past two fixtures while Josh Thomas has been leading the line.

"Dipo is obviously a key part of what we want to do and where we want to go," said Lynch after the 1-0 loss to Bohemians last Friday night. "It's the second game now where we've gotten 25 minutes out of him so hopefully we can start to get him a bit more involved. "He gives you that presence on the frontline. He can hold the ball up a bit better for us and get numbers around him a little bit quicker. "So not having that presence is one thing and obviously 'Boycie' is out also so not having that type of player is something we're missing at the moment.

"There are other little bits and pieces we need to look at and improve on but those are things we'll do in-house.

"Our work ethic has been good and at times we played some really good football but it's all about scoring goals and if you're not scoring goals you're going to get punished, especially at this level and that's what happened.”