Whilst it is still early days of the National League season, Notts County have already felt the impact of injuries to their first-team squad, with a number of key players side-lined already.
Ahead of the Magpies' win over Aldershot, both Sam Austin and Aden Baldwin missed out on the matchday squad altogether, with boss Luke Williams confirming that both had picked up injuries during training.
And during that encounter with the Shots at Meadow Lane, defender Richard Brindley was forced off after a collision down by the touchline, being unable to continue after initially trying to run it off.
READ MORE: Luke Williams highlights 'warrior' performance despite Dorking Wanderers defeat
Another defensive absentee is that of Joel Taylor, who has not featured since their 2-2 draw with Boreham Wood on the second day of the season, with it being confirmed by the Notts boss that he had sustained a grade one tear in the lead up to the Chesterfield, a game in which Williams confirmed Taylor would have started.
When comparing to the squads around the league, Notts have one of the smallest squads with only 20 players available to Williams, even less now with the current injuries within the squad.
Only Boreham Wood (19) and Woking (19) have smaller squads than the Magpies, with the teams around the summit of the table such as Chesterfield (25), Wrexham (27), and Solihull Moors (26) having much more options for when the season progresses to the busy festive period.
When comparing to last year, Notts had 29 players on their books which included loans and permanent signings during both transfer windows. But even with nine extra players compared to last year, they had the smallest squad in the National League alongside Halifax Town, with both finishing in the play-off positions.
With it still being early on in the season and not fully understanding the severity of the injuries sustained by Brindley, Austin and Baldwin, Notts' squad depth looks to be a real weakness and that was highlighted for their trip to Dorking on Saturday.
Only Kairo Mitchell and Ed Francis had played more than 180 minutes of football when looking at the players on the bench at Meadowbank Park on Saturday, with newest recruit Quevin Castro, Toby Adebayo-Rowling and Leicester City loanee Brad Young, playing a combined total of 70 minutes between them this campaign.
But Notts do have options, with Frank Vincent returning from his loan spell with fellow National League side Aldershot next Monday, and could offer Williams another option in midfield, arguably the area the Magpies do not need any reinforcements.
Connell Rawlinson's timely return to the matchday squad had him thrown in at the deep end following Brindley's injury, playing 35 minutes against Aldershot before his first 90 minutes of the season against Dorking on Saturday.
And whilst the Notts County boss has reiterated his desire to add to his current squad, he has insisted that they are looking for the right players to buy into what they are trying to create at Meadow Lane, and believes it would be disrespectful to his current squad just to bring anyone in.
