BRIGHTLINGSEA REGENT boss James Webster is urgently hunting for a new defender after being struck by a catalogue of injuries.

With Jake Holman already out for the first few weeks of the season, fellow centre-half Kevin Hughes suffered a ruptured Achilles heel in Friday’s friendly at Felixstowe & Walton.

Matt Cripps is also now struggling to be fit for Saturday’s Ryman League curtain-raiser at Waltham Abbey.

The ex-FC Clacton man has a slight hamstring tear and is touch-and-go for the weekend.

Now, to compound matters, Jake Phillips, one of the club’s best young defenders, who may have been pitched into action, suffered a recurrence of a groin injury in Tuesday’s 5-1 win at Tiptree Jobserve. “I can’t believe our luck at the moment,” said an exasperated Webster, who may consider playing under-18 captain Kieran Ayling.

“I must have jinxed us because I was only saying the other day that we’d done well in terms of injuries during pre-season.

“Since then we’ve had a succession of them and it’s ironic that several of them are centre-halves.

“It’s left us short and I’m certainly on the look-out for some cover, to see if I can get someone in before Saturday.

“Sadly, that’s it for Kev (Hughes).

“He won’t play again now and we’re all desperately disappointed for him.

“It’s incredibly bad luck, having worked so hard to get himself fit again (having only just stepped out of retirement, following a knee problem that required surgery), and made worse by the fact it was such a freak accident.

“He went up for a header and landed awkwardly. We all really feel for him.

“Matt’s injury is another worry, although I’m not ruling him out for Saturday yet.

“Thankfully, it’s not a long-term injury, but we need to be very careful.

“We don’t want to run the risk of making it worse.”

Webster had been considering pitching Phillips – last year’s under-18s captain – into battle at Waltham Abbey.

However, the defender suffered a groin injury during the midweek win at Tiptree, earned thanks to two goals from Luke Read and one apiece for Josh Mayhew, Lamell Howell and Jake Turner.

“Jay was one of the options we were considering, but now he has a reoccurrence of a groin injury that kept him out for four weeks last season,” added Webster.