Burnley’s woes go from bad to worse with double injury blow

If you didn’t think Burnley’s woes could get any worse, think again.

The Clarets have been dealt another major injury blow ahead of Saturday’s trip to Lincoln City, with the news that Jacob Bruun Larsen is set for 10-12 weeks on the sidelines with a stress fracture.

To make matters even worse, Jamie Vardy will also be unavailable for this weekend’s game due to pain in his back, leaving Burnley desperately short on options in attack.

“We have nine injuries,” an already under-pressure Nicky Hayen said.

“I can give you all, if you see how many injuries we already had this season, with Bash [Humphreys], with Anel [Ahmedhodzic] now, Josh [Cullen] still injured, Hannibal, Aaron Ramsey.

“Now Jacob has a stress fracture for 12 weeks, Jamie is also out and then JB [Jaydon Banel] and Zeki [Amdouni], these are nine players that if you have them in the selection, you have a lot of solutions, but for the moment they're not available.

“That's really unfortunate, but that's the situation.”

On a more positive note, Hayen hasn’t ruled out Cullen featuring at Sincil Bank despite the plan for him to play for the Under-21s against West Ham on Friday night.

“He's quite close,” he added. “So unfortunately he had a setback two weeks ago, because otherwise he would already be back.

“Now he will play tomorrow 45 minutes with the Under-21s and we'll see how that game goes and if he can make the squad selection for Saturday.”

Banel, meanwhile, could also get some minutes for the Under-21s as he closes in on a return, having not featured yet this season.

“He’s doing quite okay,” Hayen said.

“I just have to see with the physios that he's also involved tomorrow in the game for 45 minutes.

“He's doing quite well and I'm looking forward for these guys to come back.”

Ben Amos, Jordan Beyer, Shurandy Sambo, Mike Tresor, Ashley Barnes and Michael Obafemi also remain unavailable having been left out of Burnley’s 25-man squad list.

Ahmedhodzic should be back to face Portsmouth next week, as he serves his 10-day concussion protocol following on from the game against Charlton Athletic.