FOREST GREEN manager Mark Cooper believes Rod McDonald was lucky not to cause Charlie Cooper serious damage after the Coventry man's horror-tackle in Rovers' 1-0 victory on Tuesday night.

McDonald was handed a yellow card on 22 minutes as he lunged high into Cooper, who bravely played on for more than an hour before limping off.

After viewing a photographic still of the incident, captured by Forest Green and Pro Sports Images photographer Shane Healey, Cooper felt McDonald should have been given a straight red card.

"When you see the still picture of it, it can be a career-threatening tackle," Cooper claimed. "It should have been a straight red card and the player is very lucky to stay on the pitch."

Cooper junior will undergo a scan on his knee tomorrow and is expected to be sidelined for a number of weeks, but Cooper senior is hoping his son will make a swift recovery.

"The fact that he carried on for an hour gives us a bit of heart that he hasn’t done as much structural damage as he could have done.

"He is a tough kid and has had to put up with a lot and he gets on with it and wants to do his utmost for the football club and make a career for himself and if he can go through it he will, but Saturday will be too soon for him."

"It was a horrendous tackle and I'm waiting a response from the referees on it, he needs to be very lucky with his scan on Friday.

Cooper is calling for more protection following the challenge made by McDonald.

He said: "It was a horrendous tackle and I'm waiting for a response from the referees on it. The referees are supposed to be outlawing that kind of challenge. At one point I was six inches out of my technical area, and they're more bothered about that rather than getting the massive decisions right."

Watch Mark Cooper discuss the incident in our video now.