NEWPORT County AFC manager Justin Edinburgh says he may be forced into bringing in more reinforcements on loan as injuries and suspensions mount up.

County have decided against appealing captain David Pipe’s red card from Tuesday night’s win over Portsmouth, meaning the skipper will be banned for the next three games.

Pipe will miss tomorrow’s League Two clash with Hartlepool United and Tuesday’s FA Cup replay against Braintree Town, both at Rodney Parade, and next Saturday’s trip to Cheltenham Town.

Midfielders Lee Minshull and Ryan Burge are both struggling with knocks and striker Chris Zebroski has now been ruled out until after Christmas following his knee injury picked up at Braintree last week.

Those fresh concerns added to the absence of Andy Sandell, Byron Anthony, Andrew Hughes, Max Porter and Aaron O’Connor mean Edinburgh will look to add to his squad.

“With Zeb’s injury and David’s three-match ban I think we will need to look to bring reinforcements in before the Cheltenham game,” said the Exiles boss.

“The long-term injuries are progressing well at the moment and we’re certainly getting a lot of positivity from those guys.

“They’re big players and they’re going to make us stronger when they get back.

“But we still are light and we go into tomorrow’s game not being able to fill the bench again.

“It’s been a really testing and trying time but it is credit to the players that we are where we are at the moment.”

There is good news on Hughes, who could be back to face Cheltenham, but bad news on Burge and Zebroski.

“Andrew Hughes starts full training on Monday so that is a boost but Ryan Burge has had a recurrence of the injury and is seeing a specialist and we’ll await the outcome of that,” said Edinburgh.

“We obviously will be missing David Pipe for three games now as well, which is a big blow, and we are certainly being tested.

“Unfortunately Chris has got a large tear in his cartilage as well as dislocating his kneecap.

“He’s booked in for his operation next Friday and from there we’re probably looking at about six to eight weeks before he’s back playing. It all depends on how the surgery goes.”

Minshull could be fit to face Hartlepool despite aggravating his foot injury in a substitute’s appearance in the 3-0 win over Portsmouth in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy on Tuesday.

“Lee declared himself fit on Tuesday and we weren’t thinking of playing him but once Michael (Flynn) got a yellow card we put him on,” he explained.

“And as soon as he went on somebody stamped on his foot again so he hasn’t trained but we’re hopeful he’ll be available.”

Edinburgh was initially keen to appeal the red card for Pipe against Pompey but, having viewed it on DVD, he has now accepted the three-game ban for his skipper.

“We looked at it again and I think the ref made the right decision,” he admitted.

“I wouldn’t change David. That is his game and he’s won the ball but the ref classed it as slightly reckless and maybe over-aggressive.

“When I played that would have been a perfectly good tackle and one that I would have been proud of but in this day and age I think to appeal it would run the risk of us losing him for an extra game.”