Bruce confirms Chester absence for 6-8 weeks

Steve Bruce has today confirmed that City defender James Chester will miss the next six to eight weeks with a hamstring injury.

The City centre-back sustained the injury in added time during Saturday`s win at Newcastle and scans confirmed Bruce`s worse fears for Chester this morning with the defender unlikely to be back in contention for the first-team until City face Liverpool at the beginning of December.

Bruce will now have a difficult decision to make ahead of the visit of West Ham to the KC on Saturday. Curtis Davies will form one half of City`s central pairing in defence with Abdoulaye Faye, Alex Bruce, Paul McShane and Maynor Figueroa all in contention to replace Chester.

Both Faye and Bruce played in the 1-0 win over Huddersfield Town last night whilst Paul McShane did not feature, himself nursing a hamstring injury which has seen the defender fail to train for the past twelve days. The Irishman is expected to train later this week however and could make his first start of the season whilst Figueroa will also be available having returned from Honduras after flying home on compassionate grounds.