After limping out of Town's 2-1 midweek defeat at Hartlepool United after just eleven minutes, striker Phil Jevons' injury has today been confirmed as a slight tear of the left calf muscle - meaning he could be unavailable for the next two to four weeks.

"It's a real sickener both for Phil and the team and it compounds what was a miserable Tuesday evening," Town boss Andy Ritchie told htafc.com.

"It's still too early to tell how serious the injury is but it is likely that he will miss anywhere from two to four weeks."

With fellow forward Danny Cadamarteri due to see a specialist about his knee injury early next week and efforts to bring in a loanee thus far unsuccessful, Ritchie will have to look at other striking options for this weekend's game against Southend United at the Galpharm Stadium.

"I'm quite prepared to play Luke (Beckett) and Boothy up front together even though, as everybody knows, I am not a great fan of that partnership as I feel they are quite similar players," Andy continued. "We also have the option of sticking Malvin up front to give us that pace, but I'm not sure we should disrupt him considering how well he is doing on the right-wing at the moment.

"Danny Schofield will be there or there abouts come Saturday, which gives us another option, and we will consider our younger options such as Lucas Akins and Danny Broadbent for the bench."

Michael Collins received treatment on a knock to the knee sustained in the Hartlepool game on Wednesday but is now back in full training and will be available for selection against Southend United on Saturday.

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