Barrow AFC will be without striker Rhys Turner for the next four weeks after he suffered another injury blow in what has been a troubled first season at Holker Street.

Turner, who signed for the Bluebirds from Morecambe last summer, only made his comeback from a hamstring strain that had kept him out for a month in last Saturday’s 0-0 draw at Chesterfield.

He was on the field for 61 minutes at the Proact Stadium before being replaced by Jack Hindle, but it’s now emerged that he suffered a groin tear just before going off.

It now means another spell on the sidelines for the 23-year-old, who previously missed three months of the campaign after fracturing a foot at Leyton Orient in August.

AFC have a free weekend coming up, after the home match with Leyton Orient was moved to next month, due to the O’s still being in the FA Trophy, and manager Ian Evatt is hoping to have his now depleted attacking stocks fully re-energised when his side returns to action.

Evatt said: “We’re obviously down to the bare bones because Rhys Turner picked up an injury at Chesterfield, so it looks like he’s going to be out for four weeks or so.

“He’s got a torn groin, which isn’t ideal, so we’re just looking to manage bodies as well as recharge.

“It’s a bad one, Rhys was involved in a hefty collision just before I had taken him off and, in that challenge, he tore his groin. It isn’t good news.”

It leaves Barrow down to three strikers for the visit of Bromley next week, with Hindle competing for a place up front with Jacob Blyth and Dior Angus, as the Bluebirds look to end a four-game scoring drought.

Evatt stated last week that he’s looking for his side to get back to the attractive passing style of earlier in the season and there were signs of them getting towards that at Chesterfield, even though they couldn’t find a breakthrough.

Evatt said: “We’re working very hard on that because my philosophy is the way I like the game to be played.

“In the second half [at Chesterfield], we were a lot better and we’ll continue to try and educate the players, give them more information and give them sessions that builds their confidence to go into games and play like that.

“I’ve said many times that bravery isn’t just about tackling and heading and getting your body on the line, it’s also about receiving possession of the ball in tight areas and our lads are certainly brave enough to do that.

“We’ve got a great bunch of lads who buy into that.”