knee and could be sidelined for about three weeks.

It is the first serious injury for Goater in three years as a professional in England, but fortunately doctors do not think the damage is too serious.

Goater suffered the injury during the early minutes of Rotherham's 4-1 home win over second-placed Port Vale on Saturday when he twisted the knee and felt the cartilage come out.

"They got it back in and it seemed all right but when I tried to change directions it came out again,'' Goater explained last night from his home in Rotherham.

The injury will be a blow for both Goater and his club who are seeking promotion to the First Division. The team's other striker, Tony Cunningham, is already sidelined through injury.

"The doctors are saying the injury is not as bad as it seemed,'' said Goater.

"They said it was a good thing that I came off when I did. I saw a specialist again today and he recommended I get it done tomorrow.

"The knee is stiff and I'm limping so obviously something is wrong. It's just tender in one spot where the cartilage came out. With the arthroscopic surgery I could be out for about three weeks. It's a similiar operation to what Meshach Wade had.'' Goater was looking forward to his partnership with Andy Flounders, who is on a month's loan from Rochdale. Flounders carried the attack in Goater's absence, scoring twice as Rotherham remained in sixth place, five points behind third and fourth-placed Leyton Orient and West Bromwich Albion but with a game in hand over WBA and two over Orient.

"All the goals came while I was off,'' Goater explained. "We scored two goals in two minutes just before half-time to lead 3-1 while the fourth came in the 89th minute and was the only one I saw.

"We had to get a win because we were four points adrift of the team in fifth place. It's a very good three points and we needed them to stay in contention.

We always fancy ourselves against the teams higher up in the division, but it's teams in the middle and lower end of the table that we seem to struggle against.'' A case in point was the recent 1-0 home loss to Hull who are in the lower half of the table.