Midfielder John Sheridan has been ruled out for the rest of the season. The influential playmaker had a minor knee operation yesterday to flush out floating debris and the resulting news is that Athletic will miss yet another player for this campaign. Sheridan's knee problems have meant that he will have missed the last 14 games of this season. Sheridan is under contract for another year and intends to go on playing for as long as possible which is good news for the Latics. The veteran's value is obvious when you examine Athletic's statistics. When Sheridan starts the match Athletic average 1.96 points which would ensure an automatic promotion place, and when he doesn't start the average drops to 0.87 points which is relegation form. The results prove conclusively that John will take some replacing when he does eventually decide to call it a day.