DEFENSIVE lynchpin Tom Hannigan faces up to six weeks out after being stretchered off with a knee injury in a hard-fought 2-2 draw for Altrincham at FC Halifax Town on Tuesday night.

In a stunning setback that took some of the gloss off an encouraging unbeaten start to Alty's National League North campaign, summer signing Hannigan suffered medial ligament damage in a challenge shortly before half time.

With experienced cover thin on the ground, manager Neil Young launched an urgent quest to bring in another centre-back on loan before Saturday's trip to Harrogate.

Reflecting on successive 2-2 draws with Darlington and Halifax, and the blow of losing influential defender Hannigan for potentially 10 games, Young said: "You know with Tom that if he stays down and waves his arms like that, there are problems.

"He is a warrior and will be back as soon as he can, but it's a medial ligament grade one injury, and we are looking at four to six weeks on an initial assessment.

"He says he was making a clearance, and their lad came to close the ball and caught him and took his standing leg away.

"It's a big, big loss for us when you consider Tom and John Cyrus are as good a centre-back pairing as you will find in this league.

"We are down to the bare bones now, and I will be talking to our scouting team to see if we can get someone in from somewhere.

"We've got young Sam Heathcote, obviously, but I have spoken to him and explained I don't want to put that much pressure, at this stage, on a young lad still learning the game.

"Is there scope financially for another loan deal? There will have to be.

"It's still early in the season, and there's money in the budget.

"We will get the begging bowl out, if need be, because we really need someone in by the weekend.

"It has to be the right person, but we will be working hard to make it happen."