Bradford City have confirmed that talismanic striker Andy Cook has been ruled out for the rest of the 2024-25 season with a knee injury.

Cook came off early on in the New Year's Day League Two game against former club Barrow amid worrying scenes.

It has now been confirmed that the north-easterner, a former Golden Boot winner with City in 2022-23, will now be sidelined for a significant spell with his season over.

A club statement read: "Andy Cook will undergo surgery later this month after scans confirmed the City striker sustained a cruciate ligament injury during the Bantams' New Year's Day game at Barrow.

Andy Cook faces a lengthy period on the sidelines. | Tony Johnson

placeholder image — Andy Cook faces a lengthy period on the sidelines. | Tony Johnson

"The forward, who has scored 85 goals in the claret and amber, will miss the remainder of the season."

Cook signed a three-year deal in the summer of 2023 on the back of hitting 31 goals in the previous campaign.

Those feats saw the experienced forward become only the sixth player ever to score 30 or more goals for City in a single season, and the first in the club’s history to finish as a division’s seasonal outright top scorer.

The target man followed up with 19 goals in 2023-24 and had found the net 15 times in the first half of the current season.

Initially signing on loan in January 2021, Cook scored eight goals over the remainder of the 2020-21 campaign, before making the permanent move to Valley Parade in June 2021. A further 12 goals followed in 2021-22.

City, who have been strongly linked with a move for Burnley forward Michael Mellon, won 3-1 in Cook's absence against Grimsby Town last weekend.