Ashley Barnes will miss Albion’s next two matches and could be ruled out for longer by ankle ligament damage.

The 15-goal striker is sidelined against Notts County at Withdean tonight and from Saturday’s home game against Swindon following the injury he sustained after scoring the winner as a substitute at Oldham at the weekend.

Further tests yesterday revealed no bone damage, which would have kept Barnes out for longer.

Manager Gus Poyet told The Argus: “A ligament injury is what we were expecting. It could be a week, it could be two or three weeks. It depends on the player and how he quick he recovers and copes with pain.”

Chris Wood partners top scorer Glenn Murray tonight but the on-loan West Brom marksman is away with New Zealand on international duty on Saturday and misses the Swindon match.

Poyet has until Thursday to draft in a loan replacement for Barnes. He said: “It has to be the right person, the right player. I am not going to panic and make a mistake, bring in someone that complicates the atmosphere or the way we have been playing, just because of one game.

“We can play a different way as well. There is always the option to play Nooney (Craig Noone) or Benno (Elliott Bennett) higher up the pitch but if there is somebody who fits us perfectly then we probably will do something.

“We need to be ready and react, depending on what happens in the game tonight. I am not going to save Glenn for Saturday, he is going to play.”

Spaniard Fran Sandaza will be on the bench again tonight as back-up but Poyet is reluctant to promote free-scoring Norwegian rookie Torbjorn Agdestein too soon.

He added: “What I don’t want is to put Toby into a situation where he needs to sort out the season for us.

“I would like him to play a few minutes or a few games if we are good enough to get promoted with a few games to play. Then it will be easier as there is no pressure or extra responsibility.”