CHERRIES boss Sean O'Driscoll will await news of a scan on Shaun Maher's ankle before deciding whether to step up his search for emergency defensive cover.

Maher sat out Cherries' Division Two curtain-raiser at Port Vale on Saturday after going over on his right ankle during a training session at Dean Court on Friday morning.

And although he travelled to Vale Park in the hope he would shake off the injury, the 25-year-old Dubliner was forced to withdraw from the Cherries squad at the 11th hour.

His absence saw Karl Broadhurst restored to the Cherries starting line-up for the first time in six months, while Jason Tindall - who is still recovering from a summer ankle operation - was drafted onto the substitutes' bench.

Maher, who was set to make his first league appearance for more than 10 months after recovering from a serious knee injury, is due to have a scan to ascertain the extent of the damage later today.

Cherries boss O'Driscoll, who also lost defender Neil Young to an ankle injury last week, said: "We trained early on Friday morning before we left for Port Vale and Shaun just went over on his ankle.

"He travelled with us just in case it settled down overnight, but it didn't and the signs are that it might be serious, although it might not be so we will just have to wait and see what the scan reveals.

"It's a good job the squad is so flexible because we can move people around, but it's difficult because we lost two recognised defenders in the space of three or four days.

"You have almost got to look at the worse case scenario rather than the best and if he's going to be out for any length of time then we need to be prepared to bring somebody in, if it's possible.

"We would be in a bit of a crisis if Shaun is out for a while and in some senses we have got to wait for that to happen before we can think about bringing anybody in."

When asked if he had any irons in the fire, O'Driscoll added: "It all revolves around finance. There are players out there who we have monitored or who we are monitoring because we have to, but there's no point in asking somebody to come if we can't pay their wages.

"I'm sure if we approach the board and the chairman then things will move forward, but it's a difficult one when you've only got a small amount of money.

"We would like to strengthen our squad by three players anyway, but if I use all the available money then we could be struggling when we do get a crisis."

O'Driscoll was also quick to praise Broadhurst when he added: "We named the team on the Monday and Karl was disappointed he wasn't going to start, but we told everybody they would need to be ready because things happen and things did happen.

"His shoulder has healed and it just needs to get stronger, but he is still just one bang away from injuring it again.

"He's the type of character you need in situations like this and we knew he wouldn't let anybody down.

"We had to put Jason Tindall on the bench because he is our only other defender.

"He's fit but he hasn't played any games or trained with the other lads all week. It's difficult for him, but needs-must."