Bermuda’s injury worries ahead of their all-important Digicel Cup games in ten days’ time continued to grow this week with news that national team skipper Kentoine Jennings has pulled a hamstring.

The North Village central defender pulled up just before half-time in his side’s narrow 1-0 defeat to Somerset Trojans at The Den on Thursday night in the Premier’s Dudley Eve Trophy and hinted afterwards that it could be touch-and-go whether he is fit enough to board a plane to Trinidad with the rest of the team on January 5.

Jennings’ injury comes only a few days after Boulevard’s Stanton Lewis was also ruled out of making the trip after twisting his knee badly in another Dudley Eve game at Somerset Cricket Club last Friday.

As result, coach Kyle Lightbourne will more than likely be without the services of both his first-choice centre backs, while another national team defender, Village’s Sammy Degraff, was also struggling with a calf strain in the latter stages of Thursday night’s game.

Despite the already confirmed absence of last season’s MVP Keith Jennings, who has a long-term back injury, up front and in midfield Bermuda have a wide-range of attacking options available to them.

But even with Jennings and Lewis in the squad, it’s a fact that Bermuda do not possess a similar number of high-quality defensive options — leading to suggestions that their resources could be overly-stretched should they make it past the Dominican Republic and Haiti.

When pressed on the matter yesterday, assistant national coach Paul Scope admitted he was concerned by the recent spate of injuries.

“To potentially lose your two starting centre backs only a week and a half before a big tournament is obviously difficult,” he said.

“Losing Stan was bad news on its own, but with Kentoine also struggling that really is disappointing, particularly with Kentoine being the captain and such an inspirational figure within the team.

“But we’ve got around 25 or 26 players who have made themselves available for the trip, and we can only take 18 down for the qualification phase, so we’ve got options there.

“We’ll probably be able to get away with Kentoine and Stan’s absence in the first two games. Where it might come back to hurt us is if we go through and we have to play three games in six days.

“I was worried something like this was going to happen. What you’ve got to remember is we should have had these play-off games done and dusted by now. But because the dates and the venue had to be moved to accommodate Haiti and the Dominican Republic’s visa issues, I was concerned that one or two people might get injured during the Dudley Eve competition and that’s what has happened.”

Asked how Bermuda’s back four might line up with Jennings and Lewis left at home, Scope pointed to a number of players who could do a job — including Trojans’ Meshach Wade.

“As it stands I think a back four of Darius Cox, Dennis Zuill, Kevin Richards and Blenn Bean would have a good look to it,” said Scope.

“Meshach is also a very strong option as a utility player who would have absolutely no problems at all playing anywhere in the back four, particularly centre back.

“So we’ve definitely got the numbers and we’ll give everybody as much time as possible to prove their fitness. Injuries come with the territory and we’ll just have to deal with it as best we can.”

Kyle Lightbourne’s side play the Dominican Republic — who they beat 3-1 in the opening round of the Digicel Cup in the US Virgin Islands this past September — on January 7 before taking on Haiti two days later.

Only one team go through to the eight-team finals in Trinidad, with Bermuda’s opponents should they make it to be Martinique, Barbados and hosts Trinidad.