James McPake has revealed he expects Dunfermline Athletic to make moves in the transfer market after suffering another two injuries to key defenders.
The Pars lost Sam Fisher to a nasty facial wound and Rhys Breen to a knee problem in the 2-1 Fife derby defeat to Raith Rovers.
Fisher was taken straight to hospital after colliding with the boot of team-mate Chris Hamilton and was thought to be suffering concussion and a broken nose.
The former Dundee stopper had only just returned from a concussion lay-off after sustaining a head knock in the recent defeat to Partick Thistle.
Breen has played just three games since making his comeback from a hamstring issue but was injured in the second-half against Raith.
With skipper Kyle Benedictus ruled out again after a recurrence of his thigh complaint, the Fifers are set to be without their first-choice defensive trio for at least the coming weeks.
McPake said: “Sam’s is a really bad face injury.
“He might have broken his nose and he’s got a big gash on his face. From speaking to the doctor, he’s concussed as well.
“That’s a worry on the back of the concussion he had the other week so we will need to be careful with him.
“However long it is, we need to take care of that injury because it’s not one you can rush back anyway.
DAFC ‘could do with some help’
“He went to hospital. It was a nasty cut, a real sore one.
“Breeny’s knee, I don’t know. It was giving way, we will have to get that assessed.
“It’s two centre backs again.
“Bene’s [Benedictus’] thigh needs scanned and we will know the results Thursday morning and we will get Breeny scanned as well.
“We could do with some help [with new signings]. Particularly with losing those two, we need something and we will see what comes up.
“I don’t know about for Friday [against Queen’s Park] but we will do what we can do.”
Meanwhile, McPake has hit out at his side’s defending after conceding twice from set-pieces against Raith.
Dan O’Reilly poked in after a Josh Mullin free-kick caused chaos in the 11th minute and then O’Reilly nodded in his second from a Mullin corner early in the second-half.
McPake added: “It’s not the start to the year we wanted.
“It’s a game that is lost on two set plays, which is a recurring theme at the minute.
“We lost a set play last week, two against Partick. It’s not good enough, they are massively important.
‘We need to fix it,’ says James McPake
“Fair play to Raith, they wanted to get their head on it and punished us for that.
“I felt we started really well and played some decent stuff.
“But if you can’t defend balls into your box you’re not going to win many games of football.
“They had real desire to get on the end of it, we certainly never showed that to defend them.
“We need to fix it.”
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