Ebbsfleet United boss Jamie Day is considering another move into the loan market.

Fleet will be without midfielder Dean Rance for several weeks after he turned his ankle during the FA Trophy third round replay against Braintree on Tuesday night.

Rance had only recently recovered from the exact same injury and he missed two games through illness before marking his return with a start against Braintree.

But he went down in agony midway through the second half after going for a loose ball with Iron striker Jordan Cox.

Day said: "He went over on his ankle. I don’t actually think the player touched him. I think it was just the ground.

"I’m disappointed for him because he was playing really well. It was his first game back for a while and I thought he looked sharp.

"It’s the same ankle as last time and I think we’re probably looking at the same sort of period as before, two to three weeks. It’s not great for him because I thought he did well for the time he was on the pitch."

Rance joins an injury list which also includes Matt Godden, Lloyd Harrington, Joe Howe, Aiden Palmer, Charlie Sheringham and Michael West at a time when Fleet are in the middle of a run of eight games in 25 days.

Day said: "It’s going to be non-stop and we need to get some players back that might be a week or two away. If there’s players who are a bit longer, we might have to try to rush them in or dip into the loan market.

"We need to have a good squad of players, a 16 solid group of players going into a busy schedule. We want to give ourselves the best chance of getting out of the league so if we have to do that, we’ll dip into it.

"Hopefully we can get a few back and not have to change it around too much."

But the Fleet boss admitted none of his injured players were that close to fitness.

Day said: "Westy trained on Monday but he’s going to be a few weeks. We’re waiting on Charlie - hopefully we can get him back training in a week or so. I think Aiden’s going to be longer than that.

"We’ve got (Welling loanee) Ben Jefford to come in, who can play on Saturday, and Shieldsy (Sean Shelds) was ill so he’s available. We should have 16 players to pick from on Saturday and then we’ll assess what we need to do on Sunday and again for Tuesday."

Ebbsfleet, who travel to North Ferriby in the FA Trophy quarter-finals on Saturday, are at home to Staines on Tuesday night. They're away to Bishop's Stortford next Saturday and back at the PHB Stadium the following Tuesday for the visit of Bromley.