Just when he was re-establishing himself in the Solihull starting line-up, Justin Donawa is facing weeks on the sidelines after suffering a fractured distal fibula, during his team’s away match against Eastleigh on Tuesday night.

Donawa suffered the ankle injury in the 29th minute of the scoreless draw at Eastleigh’s Silverlake Stadium following a tackle and was taken to hospital where he was treated and released.

Jay Donawa, Justin’s father, was following the match on social media and spoke to his son soon after he suffered the injury.

“They decided to take him to the local hospital for an X-ray which revealed he did have a fracture to the fibula,” explained Donawa, a veteran runner.

“They put him in a cast and he was released. The team overnighted in Eastleigh and went back to Birmingham this morning, which was what was originally planned.

“He is due to go to a specialist tomorrow to determine the recovery process. I think the expectation is he will make a full recovery but when they meet with the team of specialists they will determine whether there needs to be any type of invasive procedure like a surgery.

He added that Justin was remaining positive despite the setback.

“He (Justin) seems to be in good spirits and is recovering at home in Birmingham. We’ll know more tomorrow in terms of the length of recovery.

Donawa had the game’s first shot on target in the fourth minute as Solihull had a good first half. It was their fourth straight clean sheet with the result leaving them in sixth place in the Conference Premier Division standings.

“As soon as I saw that he got injured I sent him a message in the hopes that at some point he would reply,” Donawa added.

“He said it was a tackle and it wasn’t even called for a foul. I follow the matches with the alerts and he told me he was starting again after playing the whole 90 [minutes] on Saturday.”

Donawa’s injury is more disappointing news for the sporting community in general and track and field community in particular, following the passing of Olympian Mike Sharpe on the weekend. Donawa is also a former top triple jumper, winning the gold medal at the 2012 Carifta Games which Bermuda hosted.

Upon hearing of Sharpe’s death, Donawa, 25, tweeted this week: “RIP Mike Sharpe. Was an honour to meet you and have so many great conversations over the past decade or so. A Bermuda legend for sure.”

Solihull have some important matches coming up in the next two weeks, playing Fylde away in the FA Trophy third round on Saturday before playing fifth place Wrexham away on Boxing Day.

Wrexham also have 36 points from 20 games, with ten wins and six draws.

Solihull then host Stockport at home two days later on December 28.