SHANDON Baptiste appears set for another lengthy lay-off after suffering what looks a serious knee injury on his comeback for Oxford United.

The midfielder came on as a substitute in the 1-0 Emirates FA Cup defeat at Brentford, his first appearance since dislocating a shoulder in October.

But within six minutes he suffered a freak injury which saw a Brentford player fall on to his knee.

It is too soon to make any firm judgements over how long Baptiste will be sidelined, but it does not look good.

U's boss Karl Robinson said: "I was in tears during the game. I don’t know what to say because he’s given me everything.

"You can’t 100 per cent say what it is, but the knee is very lax.

"As he fell the total weight of the opposition player was on him. It was nothing to do with the Brentford player.

"We’re just gutted for him. He’s in tears.

"I’m worried about him emotionally because he was in tears when he did his shoulder and it’s taken him three and a half months.

"He goes on for two minutes and it’s a suspected 12 months out of the game (as a worst case scenario)."

Robinson walked on to the pitch to offer his support, before the 20-year-old was carried off to sympathetic applause from both sets of supporters at Griffin Park.

He said: "I just wanted to see if the kid was OK, but it’s just not fair.

"I’ve seen this boy go through turmoil in recent weeks and to see him go through that pain is hard.

"I just wanted to let him know that we’re all there for him."