Hamilton Accies' injury woes have mounted ahead of this weekend's clash with Rangers after boss Brian Rice revealed Charlie Trafford will be out for three months after breaking his ankle.
And to make matters even worse ahead of Sunday's trip to Ibrox, Rice says his squad will be "down to the bare bones" with fellow midfielder Ronan Hughes also ruled out and defender Jamie Hamilton suffering from shin splints.
It's a nightmare for Accies, who won't have played for 19 days when they face Rangers due to their clash with St Mirren postponed due to positive Covid tests at the Paisley club.
Rice told Lanarkshire Live Sport : "Since the news on David and Kyle, Charlie Trafford has fractured his ankle.
"He did it last week in training and he'll be out for at least two to three months.
"Ronan Hughes took a knock as well, so he is going to be missing.
"Jamie Hamilton hasn't trained for a month due to the Covid situation with Scotland under-19s and now he's got shin splints, so we are down to the bare bones.
"That's David out long term, Charlie out long term, Kyle Munro is 4-6 weeks away at least and Ronan will be a couple of weeks - and we don't know how long Jamie will be, we need to play that by ear.
"We've not got our problems to seek."
With his squad heavily depleted, Rice is desperate to bring in cover.
Despite having talks with the Hamilton hierarchy, it seems unlikely he will sign anyone before the turn of the year.
Rice explained: "I've met the owners and the board about bringing players in and we are actively looking, but the problem is the people that you can bring in are free agents and haven't been playing football, so they are not ready to go.
"We are looking every day, but it's more likely to be January time before we will be able to bring someone in who is ready to go."
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