With Barrow AFC's squad currently weakened by injuries, manager Ian Evatt is hoping to bring in a new loan signing in the near future.

The Bluebirds managed to steer reasonably clear of injuries in the opening two months of the season, with the combinations they were able to forge in their settled line-up one of the reasons why they pushed themselves up to fourth in the National League.

That luck gave out around the turn of the month, particularly in the case of club captain Josh Granite, who is out until at least Christmas with the broken collarbone he suffered against Sutton United just under two weeks ago.

With Sam Hird and Brad Barry having muscle strains, AFC's defensive options were suddenly thin and the midfield would be affected should Jason Taylor's facial fractures keep him out for an extended period.

Evatt said: "The two weeks we've had off have given us more time to look at potential signings and it's given us time to get them in.

"It's ongoing and we have identified, certainly, one that we'd like to bring in. We're just waiting at the moment on an announcement from the parent club.

"Hopefully we can get that done because this is a lad we tried to sign during the summer, but we didn't quite get it over the line because he went on to a bigger Championship club.

"I'm quietly confident, but until it's over the line we can't really say too much".

The injury situation is part of the reason why Barrow cancelled yesterday's Lancashire Senior Cup match against Preston North End and withdrew from the competition, with the scheduling making it impossible for youth team players to be available.

Evatt said: "We would have liked to have fulfilled the fixture and calling it off was something we didn't really want to do.

"However, we had no choice, bearing in mind that the reserves and under-21s have mostly got jobs that they couldn't get out of to play and we haven't got the bodies to be able to commit to playing that fixture at the minute because of the amount of injuries we've got.

"Something had to give and unfortunately it was that fixture, but there's a bigger picture, so I'm sure people will forgive us that."