Falkirk captain to wear mask to protect injury but others miss Peterhead clash

Buchanan was injured in the first half of the win last week. Picture: Michael Gillen

The central defender suffered a broken nose after being caught by Ryan Tierney's elbow in the first half of last weekend's 3-0 win over Dumbarton.

Referee Euan Anderson held the match up for several minutes for treatment to the gruesome injury that saw blood pouring from his nose and only stemmed by two plugs for the remainder of the game before the Falkirk captain headed to Forth Valley Royal Hospital.

Buchanan missed training at the early part of the week as a precaution but was fitted for a mask to allow him to face the Blue Toon after playing through the pain barrier to see through the win against his former club.

Gregor Buchanan played through the pain barrier and will need a mask to feature against Peterhead. Picture: Michael Gillen

David McCracken paid tribute to the skipper, and joked: "Gregor looks like a proper centre half now after the battering on his nose.

"We’ve given him a few days for it to settle down especially with the amount of blood he lost during the game - we have to be careful. But fair play to him for carrying on in the game because it kept us keep a settled performance.

"All being well he should be fine for the game on Saturday."

The Bairns will likely still be without Louis Longridge and Lewis Toshney after their injuries at Airdrie. The injured pair are also out of contract and the Bairns are continuing talks.

Lewis Toshney continues to miss out. Picture: Michael Gillen.

McCracken added: "Longridge had a quick turnaround within the first week of his injury and it settled down quite quick so he started to get a bit of movement about it -- we are hoping he might be able to get some running on it next week.

"Lewis is progressing his injury week by week but might be a little longer.

"We did have Charlie Telfer and Morgaro Gomis back from their suspensions and it was good to have the boys back -- it showed, with them doing extremely well coming back in and alongside Aidan Connolly there was a lot of movement and a lot of joy out of their performances.

"We will also look to address the goalkeeper situation. Cammy Bell took an injection [on Tuesday] so we will see how he is going forward but goalkeeper is another position we need to ensure is covered."

Callum Erskine's permitted three inclusions on squad lists as an amateur have now been completed.