Hull City suffer Mallik Wilks and Callum Elder blows but Tom Huddlestone is back

The Tigers looked like they would benefit from another centre-forward in the January transfer window anyway, and Wilks's metatarsal injury, the latest problem in a stops-start season, could increase the urgency.

At present, Hull are under a transfer embargo which means they can only sign free transfers and loans offset by departures in terms of the size of their squad, but if Acun Ilıcalı's takeover goes through soon as planned, they could have a much freer hand.

"I was disappointed for Mallik because although he hasn't been in the goalscoring form he's shown since he's been at the football club, he must have the best part of 30 goals since he's been here (30 in 88 appearances in all competitions)," said coach Grant McCann.

"He scored quite a lot of goals for us in his first season with us in the Championship, he had a very good season last year but it's been stop-start for him this season. He missed a big chunk at the start of the season through injury.

"He came back, started to find his feet a little bit and now he's looking at another eight weeks out. It's frustrating for us, frustrating for Mallik but he's around good people who will help him."

Australian left-back Elder is expected to be out for three weeks after a muscle strain at Blackpool.

"Callum wanted to carry on in the game," revealed McCann. "He made a signal to me about 15-20 minutes into the game that he felt his groin.

"We asked him to go down on the pitch so the physio could look at it. The last thing we wanted him to do was tear his groin and lose him for two or three months so we made the right call to get him off the pitch at that time, which has helped in terms of his recovery.

"We're probably looking at three weeks. It's disappointing to lose him because he has been a big player for us. He hasn't been in the team for the last few weeks because of the form of (Keane) Lewis-Potter and Ryan Longman.

"It does shorten the options in that area."

Josh Magennis will also miss Saturday's televised FA Cup tie, but his is a short-term problem, whilst others are fit again.

"We have Tom Huddlestone, Matt Ingram, Will Jarvis back," said McCann. "We've lost Josh Magennis to a hamstring injury, which will keep him out of the game on Saturday but he should be okay for Stoke."