BILLY Clarke damaged his medial ligament in City’s 1-1 home draw with Shrewsbury this afternoon.

Clarke, last season’s top scorer, opened his account for the new campaign just before half-time from Steve Davies’ pass.

But he was forced to limp off midway through the second half after a collision with two defenders as he ran into the penalty area.

Phil Parkinson said: “I’m not sure how bad it is yet but it’s obviously not good news.

“Billy was having a good game and he always looked the most likely player on the pitch to create something. It was a blow for us when he had to come off.

“I thought he was excellent at times. He’s a very difficult player to mark.”

For the third game running, City could not protect a half-time lead. Tyrone Barnett levelled within just 25 seconds of the restart.

Parkinson added: “It was a cagey game but I thought we had the better of it.

“We stuck at our job and got the moment of quality to produce the goal.

“To concede so quickly after half-time was a blow and it knocked us to a degree.

“It was a freak goal. The lad miskicked it from the back, there were a couple of ricochets and it’s ended up in the net.

“We were a bit tentative at times. We weren’t quite as fluent as we have been in the first half against Swindon and at York at times.

“But it was important to get a first point on the board after losing last week.”