SWINDON Wildcats chief Aaron Nell admits he was disgusted after learning the extent of injury suffered by Toms Rutkis in last night’s 4-1 win at Telford Tigers.

The Cats’ 19-year-old forward suffered a jaw injury after a first-period fracas which left him requiring surgery this morning.

Tigers’ Great Britain international defender Jonathan Weaver was ejected from the game and given a five-minute match penalty for roughing, while Daniel Mitchell received two minutes. Wildcats’ Phil Hill got 10 minutes for misconduct at the same stage and Luc Johnson two minutes for roughing.

Speaking after the game, Nell said he was gutted for teenager Rutkis, who faces a substantial amount of time on the sidelines.

“It was horrific, you don’t want to ever see that and it there is no place in hockey for that.” said Nell.

“I know Toms is in having surgery this morning and all I can say is we wish him the best and hopefully he can get back as soon as possible.

“He’s going to be out for a long time.

“I’m gutted for him, he did nothing wrong he had a big year coming up for us, he was on a two-way deal with Cardiff Devils and he was supposed to start university today.

“I know we are all thinking about him and we are hoping he comes back as strong as possible.”

While Nell didn’t see the incident, he has implored the league to get involved and reprimand those involved.

“I didn’t see what happened to him, but a few of the players did. There is no place in hockey for stuff like that, and hopefully the league clamp down on it.

“I’m guessing there is a referee’s report, I don’t think they had video of the game up there.

“The league’s job is to protect the players, so hopefully they make a stand against something that is disgusting.”

Johnson, Sam Bullas, Joe Hazeldine and Chris Jones were on target for the Link Centre side as they completed a four-point weekend in the NIHL Cup.

While the mood was clearly dampened by the injury to Rutkis, the Cats boss says he was pleased with the performance put on by his team.

“I thought we played well for 60 minutes again, we controlled the game,” added Nell.

“Obviously a lot of stuff went on but we were always in control, and it turned out to be a comfortable win and it capped off a great weekend for the team.

“It’s great that we are able to manage the game. On Saturday, we were better than we were last night, but we managed the game there too.

“We had two top teams chasing us in the third period and we only gave up 16 shots, so it’s very encouraging.”