Pertemps Bees' injury crisis deepened yesterday when scrum-half Paul Knight was ruled out of Saturday's clash with Nottingham.
Already hit with a depleted squad, Bees director of rugby Phil Maynard is now without the services of the influential Knight due to a groin infection.
Knight had an operation on his groin last week, but an infection he picked up has failed to clear leaving Maynard with a sizeable selection problem.
The situation has got so bad for the Bees that the club has been granted special dispensation by the RFU to draft in three unregistered players for Saturday's game.
"It's very unusual, it's a unique situation, but it sums up the state of our injury crisis at the moment," said Maynard. "It's the worst injury list I have ever had as a coach, but it's protracted by the small number in the squad anyway.
"We've had dispensation to use three players that aren't registered so I'm in the middle of trying to borrow some lads as we speak.
"We're chasing a wing, a scrum-half, and a centre really, we can usually cobble the rest together."
It is typical of Bees' season that they find themselves in this situation just days before they entertain Nottingham, a team who have beaten them on the previous three occasions.
The last time was in December when Bees' woeful display brought some harsh words from the director of rugby.
"To say that our performance away at Nottingham wasn't one of our greatest would be an understatement," said Maynard. "It will be difficult again because the side is so disjointed through injury. We've lost Paul Knight again, who has an infected groin, so he's not available."
Maynard though remains philosophical about his side's predicament. "It's the nature of the beast I'm afraid," he said.
