Elgin City manager Gavin Price admits he may have to try to bring in a defender in the January transfer window.
The Black and Whites lost left-back Euan Spark to injury in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat to Cove Rangers.
Spark hobbled off after 39 minutes at the Balmoral Stadium with a knee problem following a full-blooded challenge with Declan Glass.
Elgin were also without fellow defenders Stephen Bronsky and Andrew McDonald for their trip to the Granite City.
With Price not yet sure of how long Spark will be on the sidelines for he may need to look for defensive reinforcements in next month’s transfer window.
The Borough Briggs boss said: “Injuries are hurting us. We’ve lost Euan Spark who has probably been one of our best players this season.
“It looks like he’s going to be out for a while. That’s a bit of a nightmare for us and it looks like we’re going to have to try to recruit in January and get something sorted.
“It’s Euan’s knee and it just happened from a heavy challenge really.
“It will be a big blow to us if he’s out for a while, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed it’s not as bad as it seems.”
Elgin’s defeat at the weekend was only their second in six games, but with Annan Athletic beating Queen’s Park it so the Moray side fall five points adrift of the promotion play-off places.
Although City have only lost twice in six, there has only been one victory in that sequence.
Price believes his side is good enough to finish in the top four in League Two this season, but having dropped points from winning positions against Stenhousemuir and Albion Rovers in recent weeks, he says they need to get the wins to prove it.
He added: “I knew if we turned up we would cause Cove problems because we’ve got players in the team that will hurt other teams.
“We’ve got to be consistent in what we’re doing and we’ve got to keep playing football. If we do that then we can cause problems for any teams.
“We’ve got to get that consistency. We’ve dropped so many points from stupid situations this year.
“We should be in a better position than we are. We’re a team that’s capable of being in the top four, but we’ve got to get the points to prove that.”