Barnet will be without as many as five players for Saturday's trip FA Trophy tie with Concord Rangers, forcing Martin Allen to shuffle his pack.

Player-coach Jon Nurse suffered a knee injury in the 2-1 win at Torquay United on Saturday and the Bees are awaiting the results of an MRI scan from Monday.

The 33-year-old will miss the Christmas period, Allen has confirmed: "He is on crutches and certainly won’t be available for Christmas, which is such a shame because on Saturday he was absolutely outstanding.

"It is always in the back of everybody’s mind, what are you going to do if Akinde is not fit? Well Nurse plays. Nurse can still play and the way we play now suits Jon Nurse. I am not knocking what happened before, but the way we do it now perfectly suits Jon Nurse."

The Bees head coach will also be without widemen Luisma Villa (back) and Lee Cook (knee), with both given a break in order to recover.

Said Allen: "Cooky has got swelling on his knee, so he is having some time off.

"Luisma has had a bad back so I have given him some time off and he has gone back to Spain to see his family. He was hoping to go back for two days to see his mum and dad. I probably had the biggest hug I have had from any player this season when I told him he could go home for a week.

"The last thing I told him before he left my office was that when he comes back for the Chester game I want some magic. He promised me he would bring back some magic. It will do him good to re-charge his batteries," stated Allen.

Defender David Stephens has not started either of Barnet's last two with bone bruising in his foot, though he was pressed into action after Bondz N'Gala's sending off at Torquay United on Saturday.

Allen explained: "He didn’t train at all last week but I took him along as a sub. I said I would not put him on if we were winning 3-0 but if we were winning 1-0 I would. After half an hour I had to make that decision with Bondz having to leave the pitch. I hugged him afterwards and thanked him for the effort; he has been fantastic for us this season."

There is better news regarding Sam Muggleton, who suffered a shin fracture in defeat at Braintree Town in September. The left-back made his return to action in Tuesday's 3-2 training ground defeat against Dagenham & Redbridge and Allen expects the 18-year-old to be amongst the substitutes on Saturday.

Keanu Marsh-Brown, who has been training with League One outfit Peterborough United recently, has returned to The Hive and also took part in the friendly clash with the Daggers.