TOM Bender suffered a nasty head injury while playing for his loan club Accrington Stanley during tonight’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match against Tranmere.

TOM Bender suffered a nasty head injury while playing for his loan club Accrington Stanley during tonight’s Johnstone’s Paint Trophy match against Tranmere.

However, it is believed that the promising Colchester United defender has suffered severe concussion, rather than anything more sinister.

It is reported that the 18-year-old is now in a stable condition in hospital, and that he has been given the all-clear following a brain scan.

Bender was treated on the pitch for 25 minutes, after colliding with both Accrington keeper Ian Dunbavin and Tranmere’s Lucas Atkins.

The match was eventually abandoned, with Tranmere leading 2-1, after an unconscious Bender had been placed on a drip as he left for hospital in an ambulance to undergo a brain scan.

Welsh teenager Bender is on loan at Accrington for the season.

Stanley Chief Executive Roy Heys said: “He (Bender) was starting to show signs of coming around as he left the ground.”

Stanley manager John Coleman explained: “The physio admitted it was scary. They didn’t want to move Tom and we just had to wait for the ambulance to arrive, which obviously took some time.”