Kusunga out for six weeks

Genseric Kusunga is set to miss most of the remainder of the season after pulling a thigh muscle.

Manager Lee Johnson said the versatile defender (25), now out of suspension - and out of contract at the end of the season - suffered the injury out of the blue.

“I like him a lot and it’s a disaster,” Johnson said. “He will probably be out for six weeks. He went for a shot in training and it came from nothing. It is really frustrating.

“It was three-quarters of the way into the session when it happened. There was no way we could have spotted it coming.”

Despite defensive reinforcements being thin on the ground, there are no plans to bring in a replacement for Kusunga in the short term.

“We have a couple of players we could move for if we need to,” added Johnson. “David Mellor is back so we have him, James Wilson, Jonathan Grounds, Adam Lockwood and Connor Brown.

“Then Korey (Smith) could play right-back if needed. If we had two games in two days and couldn’t sign anyone it wouldn’t be a disaster — I could put a team out and I would be confident in them.”