Injury update on Blackpool duo Marvin Ekpiteta and Leeds United loanee Ian Poveda after Watford defeat

The defender was enjoying another fine game on Saturday before he was forced to hobble off after Watford scored their first goal during the 2-0 win.

It appears the 27-year-old is set to become the latest in a long line of Blackpool players suffering with hamstring injuries this season.

“It looks like hamstring at the minute,” head coach Michael Appleton told The Gazette.

“But obviously we won’t know the severity of it until probably Monday or Tuesday. We’ll have it scanned on Monday and see where we’re at.

“It’s not helpful, that’s for sure. Until we know the severity of it we can’t really assess it too much.”

It came as a double blow given the Seasiders were also without their influential attacking midfielder Ian Poveda, who failed a fitness test on the morning of the game at Vicarage Road.

The Leeds United loanee has been a revelation in recent weeks playing in a number 10 role, but was forced to watch from the stands at the weekend.

“He felt sore yesterday (Friday),” Appleton said.

“We felt reasonably confident his groin would be okay today but he had a fitness test this morning and he didn’t come through it.”

Appleton also opted to remain cautious with new signing Tom Trybull, who remained on the bench despite Blackpool clearly lacking a defensive presence in the centre of the park.

But the German wasn’t is lacking in match fitness having not played since November due to the World Cup and the winter break.

When asked if Trybull was even considered for a start, Appleton said: “Not really. He’s not played for a while. We want to get a full week’s training into him before we consider that.

“He might have been an option from the bench if we went a goal up and we were trying to protect to see the game out. But once they went a goal ahead it wasn’t really going to be an option.

“He’s had three or four really good days of training but he needs a full week of that before he’s close enough to start.”