WALES coach Osian Roberts has expressed his sympathy for Sam Vokes after the Burnley striker was ruled out for several months with a serious knee injury.

Vokes ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament in Saturday's 2-0 home defeat to Leicester and will now face a lengthy lay-off.

The 24-year-old has forced his way into the Wales starting line-up in recent months, scoring in the friendly with Iceland.

As well as missing the rest of Burnley's season and potentially the start of next term, he could now be absent for the start of Wales' Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.

"We're all gutted for Sam, he's been in a rich vein of form and full of confidence," Roberts told the BBC.

The coach, however, believes Wales have options to fill the gap left by Vokes' absence.

He said: "With 10 qualifying matches you assume that you won't have Sam available for every game anyway. It gives us a reason for trying something different.

"We've got players who can slot into that position, like Simon Church for example.

"And we've got other attacking options where maybe we can do things a little bit differently and that may vary from game to game."