Kieran Phillips ruled out for three months with knee injury

The striker joined Salop in the summer on loan from Huddersfield Town and is yet to make his mark in Shropshire having not scored in his eight appearances.

And Matt Taylor has confirmed Phillips is set to be out for some time, leaving them light on numbers in forward areas.

“Kieran Phillips unfortunately is going to be out for three months,” the head coach said.

“Which is obviously a real blow for us, he has had an exploratory procedure on his knee.

“It is not the news that we wanted and it leaves us slightly light now at the top of the pitch, but that is nothing new for us. The one thing we have not done well enough this year is score goals.

“It is going to be difficult and we also have an international break coming up as well so by all accounts we are going to lose Max Mata."

Taylor said Phillips is now back at home in Yorkshire and receiving treatment with the Terriers.

“Speaking to him yesterday, he is sat at home in bed on a machine,” Taylor continued.

“He is currently back at Huddersfield so it is not ideal for us.

“It has put us back a bit, and Kieran was just getting to a point where he was just getting a run in the team.

“These things happen, and we have to accept that in football there will always be injuries.

“The Kieran one is a difficult one because I felt he could have been a real asset to us at the top of the pitch.”

The injury to Phillips leaves Town with Max Mata, Dan Udoh and Ryan Bowman as their only recognised strikers in the squad.

But they do have Aiden O’Brien, at Sutton United, and Tom Bloxham, at Morecambe, who are both out on loan.

And when asked about them returning in January the boss said initial conversations had taken place.

“Both of them will not be able to come back into this building until January,” he said

“We had a recruitment meeting on Monday and it is a conversation we had as a group of staff. We will monitor that, but the most important thing is focusing on the players in the building.”