Devonshire Cougars will be without centre half Kijuan Franks until the new year.The influential defender injured his left knee in a freak incident during the Big Cats’ league clash with St George’s at Wellington Oval late last month.“I had to make an awkward clearance and in the process of me clearing the ball the footing on the field was slick and gave way and my knee just went inside of me,” Franks said. “It was just a freak accident.”The sweeper’s knee remains swollen more than week after suffering the injury that has sidelined him for the remainder of the first half of the campaign.“I’ve been wrapping it in ice which is all I can do,” Franks added. “I still can’t straighten it all the way, but I have made some progress and hopefully I’m looking to be back in the new year.”Franks doesn’t view his injury woes as a major setback to his team and is confident his team-mates can get the job done in his absence.“We have a lot of depth this year in our defence so it’s not really that big of a blow to us,” he said.Cougars are off to a promising start in the Premier Division this season.The Big Cats currently top the standings by a single point over nearest rivals PHC Zebras.Dennis Brown’s team has so far managed five wins and only lost once against defending league champions Dandy Town, back in October.“It’s a good start for us even though we haven’t played up to our full potential yet,” Franks said. “As far as our league position is concerned it is what it is right now and it would be nice if it could be like that come end of the season. We are just taking it one game at a time.”Asked whether he thought his team could win a first league championship in four seasons, Franks replied: “We have depth in our team all the way around so we definitely have the squad to go for it.”Cougars have had no trouble finding the back of the net in the league where they have banged in 21 goals in eight matches. However, they have been porous in defence where they have leaked 12 goals, a stat which may cause a bit of concern for coach Brown.“We haven’t been torn apart ... we’ve just let in a lot of sloppy goals through miscommunication,” Franks said. “But as the season goes on all that will stamp itself out.“The last two games we have had a clean-sheet, so improvements are being made.”Cougars will close out the first half of the season when they host third placed Southampton Rangers at the Den on Friday night.