The First Division will take the spotlight this weekend but one of the division’s brightest talents, Nathan Rego of Somerset Eagles, will be missing, sidelined by a shoulder injury picked up last weekend.

Rego, the division’s top scorer in his first season of senior football, injured his shoulder in Sunday’s 6-0 thrashing of X-Roads, though not before netting two more goals to take his tally to 16.

Roger Lee, the Eagles coach, confirmed that the CedarBridge Academy student will be out for Saturday night’s crucial match with third-placed BAA, and could also miss the following game against Young Men’s Social Club.

“It’s going to be a week, maybe two; nothing was broken, just the ligaments around the shoulder,” Lee said. “They told him to rest it for a week.”

Rego’s goals have been the reason for Somerset Eagles’s surge this season, tied for first place with Flanagan’s Onions and with a seven-point gap over the third and fourth teams, BAA and St George’s.

Rego netted twice against BAA back in November when Eagles beat them 3-2 to end an unbeaten 17-game run stretching back almost a year.

“He’s up there with the leading goalscorers in the league, so his contribution has been vital for us this season,” Lee said. “He certainly is going to be a miss for us on Saturday night.

“He could have been out for longer but hopefully for the Social Club game he’ll be back.”

St George’s did the top two teams a big favour by beating BAA on Sunday, leaving Eagles and Onions with a gap that now is even bigger than Dandy Town’s at the top of the Premier Division.

The top flight matches this weekend have been rescheduled because of the Bermuda national team’s two friendly matches in St Kitts.

Eagles have a tough finish to the season, following the Social Club match with fixtures against St David’s, Onions and Wolves.

“What I told the players is let’s take one game at a time; we have BAA coming which will be a challenging game for us,” Lee said.

“Right to the end of the season are some tough games coming and that cushion at the top for us and Flanagan’s could dissipate if results don’t go to plan. It’s still tight at the top.”

Rego, on his current scoring form, would be a candidate for young player of the year, but more important for Eagles is his recovery from the injury.

“One of the good things for us this season is we have had a bit more depth; when players are out others can come in and do the job,” Lee said.

“We’re hoping those players are able to step up now that Nathan is out and do a good job for us. He was part of our youth programme, then he went to Somerset Cricket Club for one season after he finished under-14s because we didn’t have an under-16 team.

“He came back to us after his sixteenth birthday when he became eligible to play senior football. He’s done extremely well.”