Braintree Town manager Danny Cowley is looking at loan additions to his squad ahead of their Vanarama National League trip to Lincoln City this weekend.

It has been a profitable, but also attritional, last few weeks for Braintree as a 0-0 draw against Grimsby Town and a 1-0 win against Dover Athletic have taken them up to sixth in the National League table.

However, injuries to some key players have left them stretched, with Chez Isaac and Simeon Akinola both going off with hamstring problems against Dover and Cowley said they are looking to bring in some loanees ahead of the trip to Sincil Bank.

“We feel we can manage the situation with Chez,” he said.

“It’s pretty bad and you could see on Tuesday how debilitating it is for him, but we’re trying to manage him and it’s a needs-must basis.

“However, we’re a bit worried about Simeon.

“The optimistic side of me says it’s just cramp, but he is a powerful, explosive player.

“He felt his hamstring when he was under fatigue on the background of so many games recently, so the likelihood of it being a pull like that increases and we are worried about him.

“The optimistic side still says cramp, but we’ll have to see and rest is going to be crucial to his rehabilitation.

“It means we’ve got doubts over Matt Fry, Kenny Davis, Dan Sparkes, Mark Phillips, Chez and Sim and they’re all key players down the spine of the team.

“It’s certainly a challenge, but we’re working hard to get one or two in (on loan).

“We’re working really hard on it behind the scenes, but with finances where they are, we’re limited with what we are able to do.

“We beg, steal and borrow and that’s what it is as the club have to live within their means.

“We just have to look to pull a rabbit out of the hat.”

To add to their injury concerns, there is also the added complication that Matt Paine may be suspended for the trip to Lincoln.

Paine received his fifth yellow card of the season, which brings an automatic one-game ban, for a foul early in the game against Dover, however, Cowley said it was Sam Habergham who committed the foul on Athletic’s Ricky Miller and should have got the caution.

So he is hoping that Paine’s card will be rescinded and reallocated to Habergham to leave Paine free to play on Saturday.

Cowley said: “Sam made the foul on the edge of the area as he came across late, but the referee issued the card to Matt.

“It was mistaken identity, we know that 100 per cent as we have video of it so we’ve asked the referee to reconsider and we’ll see how it goes.”