Faversham Town manager Ray Turner must solve a centre-half problem ahead of Saturday’s Ryman League, Division 1 South opener at home to Worthing.

Turner has suddenly found himself with only one central defender – in the shape of Matt Bourne – because of injuries and unavailability.

Jordan Miller is likely to be ruled out for up to three weeks with a groin strain while John Scarborough is rated as 50-50 because of a calf injury. The two young players who would have been candidates to plug the gap, Freeman Rogers and Dan Carrington, are both unavailable.

Turner said: “Freeman is on holiday and Dan is on a course. It’s just typical that you go through the whole of pre-season without any problems and then you are hit like this.”

Faversham completed their pre-season programme with a 3-0 win over Aveley, thanks to goals by Dave Botterill, Darren Marsden and Renford Tenyue but Turner is expecting a stiffer task against Worthing even though his side finished nine points above the West Sussex outfit last season.

He said: “I’ve heard that Worthing are going for it (this season) and they will be much stronger.”

Folkestone Invicta will provide Faversham’s first away opposition, on Tuesday night.