Sean Dyche has opened up on the desperate situation at Burnley regarding players' contracts as he failed to name a full bench against Man City.
The Clarets boss is without the likes of Ireland star Jeff Hendrick, Aaron Lennon, Phil Bardsley and Joe Hart as the club has stalled on offering the players new contracts amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Midfielder Hendrick, 28, has recently been linked with Serie A giants Roma and AC Milan, with his time at Turf Moor looking set to come to an end this summer.
Dyche was permitted to pick nine substitutes for Monday night's match but his bench contains just seven players - two of which are goalkeepers.
Dyche said on Sky Sports: "It's a definite challenge, you have probably seen our squad for this evening. We have got some things that are hard to put together at the moment with contracts and stuff like that so we are a bit skinny on numbers.
"I think picking up where we left off against these is tough anyway because they're a good side."
On the contract issue he added: "It's a strange situation with contracts and the chairman has advised what we should do and then there has been a long delay in getting things done.
"So the players therefore who haven't been offered things have made a decision to not finish their contracts, even if it is just for the next 10 days.
"So it's been tough on the group and it's a tough situation."
When asked if the likes of Hendrick will play for Burnley again, he replied: "Not at this moment, we will see, I am trying to get the situation sorted out but it's not easy.
"All of them I would have kept, certainly in the short term, but obviously I don't sort contracts out."
