ASHLEY Barnes is recovering well from knee surgery, says Sean Dyche.

But the Burnley boss admits he has never experienced the catalogue of cruciate knee ligament injuries that the Clarets squad was struck by in the space of 14 months.

Sam Vokes was the first to fall victim towards the end of Burnley’s promotion season, meaning the striker missed much of the Premier League campaign.

After Vokes’ Boxing Day return, Kevin Long then went down with a similar injury on his top-flight debut, at Newcastle United on New Year’s Day.

He was followed by Dean Marney in February.

Barnes has joined the duo in the treatment room after adding his name to the list of cruciate casualties in the 1-0 win at Aston Villa on the final day of the season.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Dyche of the injuries.

“When you look at Vokesy, no-one near him, Dean Marney had minimal contact, Longy jumped in the air and twisted his knee, and Barnesy, someone fell on him.

“It was a silly, not vicious challenge on Barnesy that didn’t need to be made. He lands on our player and he does his cruciate.

“You can’t imagine that would happen three times in a season and one at the end of the previous one.

“It is just a freak run of events.

“They are the uncontrollables. You look at the way we work here, it’s well known about the strength of the group physically.”

Dyche said they had improved on soft tissue injuries, with fewer cases recorded.

“Our soft tissue injury record was up again last season to an all-time high virtually,” he said.

“The only ones were Matty Taylor, outside of the cruciates – and you can’t do a lot about them.

“It really is an anomaly, and we obviously hope that doesn’t come round again.”

On the plus side, Dyche said Barnes’ knee surgery had been a success.

“The op’s all done. It’s a freak situation but the surgery side was straightforward,” he said.

“He’s a tough lad, and we knew it was likely to be serious (when the injury happened) but he just gets on with things.

“He’s in good hands and if there is a positive, they’re all behind each other. They’ve seen the process and they’ll be thick as thieves.

“At least they’ll have someone to talk to and get them through because it’s a long road to recovery.”

With Barnes set to be sidelined for most, if not all of next season, it will be between Long and Marney for who reports back first. But Dyche said: “I never do timescales.

“You have to be open minded, but they’re making good progress.”