Ebbsfleet United have sent club captain Dave Winfield for scan on his injured knee.

Centre-half Winfield was stretchered off during Fleet's 4-2 win over Braintree on Boxing Day.

He received treatment on the pitch for several minutes and supporters were left fearing the worst.

Ebbsfleet boss Garry Hill said: "It doesn't look good at the moment and he'll have to have a scan, which is disappointing.

"He's a big player on and off the pitch in every way or form

"He's a proper skipper at this football club. He looks after the changing-room in a big way.

"He conducts himself properly, when he comes and talks to me and asks questions. He always puts the playing squad - rightly so, as skipper - at the front of his mind to sort things out all the time.

"He's got a knee brace on. When you need a scan, it doesn't look good and when he gets stretchered off, you know he's not the sort of lad who's going to go off the field of play for the sake of doing it.

"We can only hope and see what the results are."

However long Winfield is out for, his absence leaves Fleet with only 17 fit contracted players plus Freddy Moncur, who's at Stonebridge Road on a short-term deal.

But with the club still going through a financial restructure, it's not as simple as Hill just going out to find a replacement.

He said: "I can't change it - unless you want to play yourself! That's where we are, working with the bodies at the minute.

"It's where we are and we won't change that. I can't, and I won't, go out and sign players.

"I'm not being rude when I say it but not many clubs are going to let you have players over this festive period.

"They've got to be good players, better than what we've got, to come into the club. If they're (only) as good, why am I fetching them in?

"That's why I've tried to move players out, to get a certain amount of movement, to be able to do one or two things, hopefully, if we're in a position to get back in respect of the structure going forward.

"I'm trying to get results with the playing squad at the football club, for the football club, to go in the right direction to make that claim, hopefully, to be in an area, going into the new year, to be able to fetch one or two more players in.

"It's no disrespect to Freddy Moncur because he's done very well in training but really we've only fetched one player in: Cody McDonald.

"If Cody McDonald gets fit, he is capable of getting a lot of goals in this league.

"We sit in a position with Cody which is very amicable going forward, which is nice because I know that hopefully going forward for the benefit of Ebbsfleet United, for next season, him fit with a pre-season under his belt, he will be a handful.

"He'll be a handful between now and the end of the season, there's no doubt about that.

"He spun the bloke so early in the first minute and set it up, he's worked that goal out of nothing. He's a big player.

"Kedwell's proven up top and they're a very good pair.

"I know Michael Cheek's disappointed he hasn't started the game but that's football.

"I've got three forwards. I can understand players turning round if I've got five or six players and thinking when are they ever going to get a chance but if I've got three forwards and there are two shirts, those three are going to have to sort it out."