Barrow AFC will be without midfielder Jason Taylor for tomorrow's FA Trophy tie at Atherton Collieries as he is rebuilding his strength after having to recover from pneumonia.

The 32-year-old missed last week's home game against Aldershot Town with flu, which unfortunately worsened, forcing him to spend several days in hospital.

Taylor has had a rough time of it lately, as he is still recovering from the fractures to his cheekbone and eye socket that he sustained against Sutton United at the beginning of last month.

He has since been able to return to action whilst wearing a mask, but still hasn't regained full feeling to the right-hand side of his face.

It's unclear yet when Taylor will be feeling strong enough to return, but manager Ian Evatt hopes to have one of the main driving forces of his team back for Christmas.

Evatt said: "He's a young, fit male and it's for for those, especially athletic ones, to get pneumonia. I think it was a very mild form, but obviously he was in hospital for three or four days. Thankfully, he has improved now.

"We'll just have to wait and see where he is, regarding to how he's feeling.

"If he's feeling tired and drained then we'll have to back off before trying to build him up as best we can. Jason has had no luck at all, but he is improving every day and we've got to try and rebuild his energy levels back up again."

Club captain Josh Granite is one of two long-term absentees in AFC's squad, with goalkeeper Johnny Saltmer set for a long spell out after an operation to his ankle. Recent signing Luke Simpson is set to make his debut between the posts at Atherton, with Joel Dixon likely to be rested.

On Saltmer, Evatt said: "He's looking at not being back until probably March time because he's had to have of an ankle reconstruction, which isn't ideal.

"It was quite a serious operation, so he won't be back until March and we've one or two other niggles that we're looking after."