Darren Ward will be staying in hospital over night after suffering a suspected fractured cheek bone in a clash with Bristol City’s Dele Adebola.

Watford’s centre half, who is on loan from Wolves, was struck in the face late on in the second half in this evening’s 1-1 draw.

The Hornets’ caretaker manager was furious the striker wasn’t punished and let his feelings known to referee Neil Swarbrick.

The Scot, whose reign as manager ended this evening, said: “He is going to hospital to have an x-ray on his face. I felt that it certainly wasn’t the guy’s (Adebola’s) head that hit Darren’s cheek and I made my feelings known to the referee and after the game he (the referee) apologised and said that he made a mistake.

“Things happen so quickly, at that point I just wanted to make sure I could get 11 players on the pitch to be honest with you.

“It was a case of ‘is he bleeding?’ if he is then there is three minutes to go and if it isn’t going to stop in 30 seconds, then we need to get someone on the pitch quickly. As cold as that sounds, you get wrapped up in the game and it is all about the result at that point.

“I have good medical staff in Andy Rolls and his team and they have been looking after him and have been the minute since he came off the pitch and we have a doctor here, so I think he has been looked after as best as he possibly could.”