CAPTAIN Nathan Cameron faces an anxious wait to determine the severity of a knee injury he sustained in the closing stages of Bury’s 2-0 defeat at Shrewsbury yesterday.

The Shakers were already reeling at the news that in-form goalkeeper Rob Lainton would be out for up to eight weeks with a groin injury he picked up in the midweek defeat at Bradford.

But after Cameron sank to the floor following an innocuous challenge and was forced to limp off in the 83rd-minute, there are now fears the skipper could join a casualty list that already includes Kelvin Etuhu, Andrew Tutte, Craig Jones, Danny Pugh, Ryan Lowe and Danny Nardiello.

“He’s felt something in his knee so, over the next two hours we’ll assess that on the journey home,” said Flitcroft in his post-match interview.

“We’ll get back to Carrington and see where that is at, see where he is at.

“That’ll be a colossal loss if we lose the skipper.”

Flitcroft also gave a gloomy injury update on Lainton.

“It’s a high-end grade two groin tear,” said the Bury boss.

“He was kicking through the ball and it’s just gone. One of his kicks, his long kicks, he’s just torn it.

“It’s in a poor place for a keeper..

“It’s one of them where there is probably 20 to 25 restarts a game with goalkeeper’s kicks. It’s something that’s really important to get it right.

“So he’s potentially out for about six weeks, but that six weeks is to get him back in full-time training and then after that get him a couple of games.

“He’ll probably need eight weeks in total before Rob is back to being fully fit and fully competing for games and game time.”

It is not yet clear how long Jones (groin) and Pugh (stomach muscle) face on the treatment table after they also suffered injuries at Bradford, but Flitcroft does not expect any of his long-term casualties to return in time for this weekend’s visit of Blackpool.

And with new signing Chris Eagles “miles off” full-match fitness, the Shakers manager expects to be dipping back into the loan market, rather than rely on the youth team graduates he has promoted to the bench in recent weeks stepping up into the starting line-up.

“Kelv (Kelvin Etuhu) is probably three weeks, Tuttes (Andrew Tutte) is probably five weeks. Lowey (Ryan Lowe) has been doing more over the last week, he’s been getting his yards and mileage in so he’s probably the nearest one,” added Flitcroft.

“We’ll have a body count Monday and see where we’re at.

“Having no midweek game, (we have a) good chance to spend a week on the training ground. But again, (I foresee) a good week on the phones trying to bring bodies in that can start the game.

“To have the kids that we have on the bench, they’re in and around what we’re doing but it’s a big ask for them.

“Khalid (Mohamed), Burge (Scott Burgess) and Duds (Anthony Dudley), it’s a big ask for them.

“If you want to have designs to really consolidate in this league and become a permanent fixture in this league, then we’ve got to keep building and progressing.

“I think that’s certainly what we’re going to do.”