Leyton Orient interim head coach Ross Embleton has heaped praise on defender Sam Ling after he was forced off in the defeat to Crawley.

Ling was replaced by Myles Judd after 34 minutes when he appeared to suffer a head injury, but Embleton revealed that on assessment it was a nasty injury to the nose.

Aside from that though, Embleton praised the defender’s performances this season and offered protection to some of the criticism that he has received.

After the game, the boss said: “It was a real severe whack on the nose. We’re hoping it’s not broken. To pick up on that though, Sam Ling has been outstanding this season.

“He got some unfair criticism last season after being a player that put his neck on the line for the club, put his body on the line for the club, because he had numerous amounts of injuries last year and when called upon, played with injuries.

“I don’t think he gets enough credit. I think sometimes that’s probably because of who his dad is. Why that credit doesn’t go to him just because his dad works at the football club, I think is totally unfair.

“I was made aware this morning of some real strong criticism that was made of him last night by a particular ex-player at this football club. We talked about learning from mistakes and I haven’t seen Sam Ling make particularly many this year. I think he’s been outstanding. He’s come back in great physical shape, which we asked him to do at the end of last season, and his performances have been good.

“We just need to be careful sometimes of how critical we can be of players.”