CHRIS Brass handed managerless Burnley another pre-season shock when he was admitted to hospital yesterday suffering from appendicitis.

He had an operation last night and Clive Middlemass, the club's chief scout who has taken temporary charge of playing matters, said everything had gone well.

"It's not very nice for the lad and will set him back as far as pre-season training is concerned," he said today.

"But the main thing is that he is all right and I would think he will be okay by the time the season starts."

The highly-rated young defender has established himself as a first team regular at Turf Moor and has been tipped to have a very bright future.

Brass will be 22 later this month and is a product of the club's youth policy, having joined Burnley from school as a trainee.

The Burnley squad reported back for pre-season training this morning and Middlemass expected a full turnout, with the exception of Brass. Only one new signing has been made so far at senior level, with the situation complicated by Adrian Heath's shock departure last week.

Marco Gentile, signed by Heath from Dutch club Maastricht, was linking up with his new team-mates for the first time as they started work again.

Although the club are without a manager and assistant manager, Middlemass did not expect any problems.

Burnley are fortunate to have him around to organise things, as he has a wealth of experience, and he will be assisted by the reserve and youth coaches, Harry Wilson, Terry Pashley and Alan Harper.

"It doesn't matter that much who is in charge when they start training again," he said.

"Footballers are professionals and they get on with the job, it's not a problem for us.

"We'll try to keep things as normal as possible. The club doesn't come to a full stop just because the manager has gone. The players are back today and the same sort of things which happen every year will happen again."

On the managerial front, Mike Phelan can be ruled out as he has followed Gary Megson from Blackpool to Stockport as assistant manager.

But another former Burnley player, Willie Donachie, is believed to be interested in the post.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.