LEE Sinnott has moved to ease Altrincham's mounting injury crisis by signing exciting Burnley winger Josh Ginnelly on an initial one-month loan deal.

A timely addition in the wake of skipper Shaun Densmore being ruled out for the rest of the season, the 18-year old right-sided midfielder arrives with impressive credentials after taking the eye at Shrewsbury and joining Burnley for an undisclosed six-figure fee last August.

Nuneaton-born Ginnelly spent seven years at Aston Villa's Academy before moving to Shrewsbury and earning himself rapid promotion to the senior squad after scoring 24 goals in his debut season for the youth and reserve teams.

After failing to keep him from Burnley's clutches, despite offering him new improved terms, Shrewsbury manager Micky Mellon said: "I hope he goes on to become a huge success at Turf Moor and shows everyone the potential he has. He is a lad of great promise, with fantastic potential, and there's no doubt in my mind he can go right to the very top."

Densmore, meanwhile, looked on the bright side after being booked in for surgery on January 28.

"It’s a blow, but I was half-expecting it after the medial ligament injury failed to clear up as we hoped," he said. "The surgeon said three to four months, so we are looking at pre-season and making sure I’m back in peak condition for the start of the next campaign.

"When I came back from the last medial lay-off, I wasn’t in any pain but there did seem to be a weakness in that area. That’s because the fibres had not re-attached properly, but this operation will sort that out by pinning the ligament firmly to where it should be. That’s the one good thing – the surgery is a reconstruction, rather than just a clean-up, so there’s every reason to believe I’ll be back as good as new and a lot more confident about the knee withstanding the demands of a long, hard season. In a way, I’m almost relieved we may finally be close to sorting it out once and for all."