Sykes to miss next two games with shin injury

Mark Sykes has joined Bristol City's growing injury list as the midfielder looks set to miss two games due to a shin problem.

Sykes came on as a substitute to replace the injured Neto Borges after 24 minutes in the 1-0 defeat by Blackburn but was unable to finish the match due to a cut on his leg that meant a trip to hospital on Tuesday night.

"He's out the next two games, he was in the hospital today with a specialist, a plastic surgeon," boss Gerhard Struber told BBC Radio Bristol.

"He has a very long cut on his shin line and this looks really bad."

City travel to Watford on Friday on the back of successive defeats before the league takes a two-week international break, prior to hosting Swansea on 22 November.

The Robins now have 10 players unavailable, with Rob Atkinson set to be out until at least Christmas with a hamstring injury.

The severity of Borges' injury was still unknown to Struber, with the left-back having had a scan on Wednesday.

"I [will] get the picture in the next few hours and we [will] have a clear diagnosis what goes on but we hope for the best," he added.