Here’s my column from last week’s Leader. It forms part of the paper’s comprehensive pre-match coverage every Friday, featuring interviews, an in-depth look at the opposition and lots of statistical analysis. All content in the column (c) www.leaderlive.co.uk.

It was a horrible, weird, almost unimaginable sensation, seeing Mark Creighton lying on the floor, clearly badly injured last Saturday.

Once it was obvious that the problem wasn’t trivial, and let’s be honest, something inconsequential isn’t going to keep the Beast down for any length of time, the usual thoughts went through my mind: just how serious is it? Is he going to be out for long? Will we be able to cope without his inspirational presence?

But overwhelmingly, the question screaming itself in my head was “HOW COME MARK CREIGHTON CAN BE HURT?” It just seemed incomprehensible. I mean, this was the Beast. The Beast! His nickname makes him sound like something out of Marvel Comics, and it’s no coincidence. He has the bearing of one of these invulnerable superheroes Stan Lee dreams up. You can’t hurt The Incredible Hulk, so how can you damage The Beast?

Seeing him lying there was just wrong. Every school kid knows you can’t hurt The Thing from the Incredible Four, you can’t hurt Asterix’s pal Obelix, and you can’t hurt The Beast.

It was hard to grasp, and thank goodness that Martin Riley, pitched so early and so unexpectedly into the action, was ready. He did extremely well, stepping into the breach with aplomb, and Chris Westwood continued his good early season form alongside him.

In fact the whole back four performed admirably in ridiculous heat. But the side needed them to be that good, because for the ten minutes after Creighton was stretchered off they were all over the place, clearly as stunned as I was.

As Ebbsfleet threatened, Wrexham players staggered round the pitch, mute and confused, like Bishop Brennan after Father Ted kicked him up the backside. Perhaps Joslain Mayebi still hadn’t shaken off the shock when he fumbled the ball for Ebbsfleet’s equaliser.

We’ll have to learn to deal without him for a while now though. Apart from Riley and Westwood we have Stephen Wright and Leon Clowes able to fill in. At a pinch, Steve Tomassen and Anthony Stephens have both filled in at centre back in first team matches, albeit not games with anything riding on them, so there’s certainly not a lack of options.

Riley will be crucial, I suspect, which is ironic as he lost out to Westwood at the start of the season. He’s the only one of the specialist centre backs with pace and you can’t prosper without that quality at the back.

But all that is still to come. For now, I’m finding it hard to focus on anything but the loss of The Beast. Any key player’s absence leaves a hole in the side: a hole the size of Creighton is going to be difficult to fill! It’s hard to imagine the side without him.

Still, I suppose all good superhero sagas have a point where he falls from grace, only to return stronger than ever and save the day. When The Beast returns and heads in the goal which wins the league title, all this trauma will just seem like part of the narrative.