Ebbsfleet United manager Kevin Watson has described losing talisman Myles Weston to injury as a “hammer blow”.

Weston came off early in the second half of Saturday’s National League home defeat to Dover Athletic with a hamstring injury.

The influential 31-year-old has been Ebbsfleet’s best player this season but now faces a spell on the sidelines.

“I’m not sure how long he is out for – it’s a huge blow,” said Watson.

“He said he was fine at half-time. He tweaked his hamstring; he was getting a rub on it at half-time but he had one run in the second half and then came off and said ‘sorry’.

“I don’t know why he’s sorry as he’s carried us for a lot of the time I’ve been here and been outstanding. It’s a hammer blow.”

It means Weston will sit out the crunch New Year’s Day clash with Dagenham, who sacked Peter Taylor on Sunday. Fleet are now six points from safety in the National League but can move to within four points of Dagenham with a win.

The teams drew 1-1 on Boxing Day when Ebbsfleet conceded a late equaliser against 10 men, having led through Alex Reid’s second-half strike.

“They lost again so it’s a chance to pick up three points and close the gap on them,” said Watson.

“We’ll take each game on its merits and if we get that level of performance then we’ll go close.

“We know what we’re up against. We were poor at Dagenham and it possibly flattered us to go 1-0 up, I don’t think anyone deserved to win that game if we’re honest.

“Both teams were disappointing on the day but we know all about them and they know about us.

“They’re all key games from here on in. We’ve got 19 cup finals to go.

“We’ve set targets of how many we need to win, we might need less, we might need more.

“We find ourselves in a difficult position but we’ve been in a difficult position since I’ve been here.”

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