Shrewsbury Town have been rocked by the news that birthday boy Tom Bradshaw faces six weeks on the sidelines.

Bradshaw, who turned 19 today, suffered the knee injury in Friday’s friendly victory over a Wolves XI.

And initial scan results have now shown that the Welsh under 19 striker will miss at least the first month of the campaign.

“It could be four to six weeks with Tom,” said boss Graham Turner, speaking after last night’s 2-1 friendly defeat at Kidderminster Harriers.

“He has damaged some of the cruciate ligaments and the muscle at the back of the knee.

“There is a slight tear in his cartliage. The specialist will be shown the scan and see whether surgery is needed.

“But, irrespective of that, it will be four to six weeks best scenario.”

The news is a major blow to Bradshaw , who was aiming to cement his place as a first team regular, and Shrewsbury who have seen one of their four attacking options ruled out.

Terry Gornell, Marvin Morgan and James Collins will now battle for the starting berths, although Lionel Ainsworth finished last night’s game in a striking role.

But Turner admitted the bulletin on Bradshaw could have been grimmer.

“It could have been a lot worse,” added the Town boss.

“Had he not had a good build up of the muscles around his knee, he could have torn his cruciate.

“But he has good knee strength and that has carried him through.”

Meanwhile, Town gave an outing to trialist right back Peter Bore – who has spent the last five seasons at Grimsby – last night.

“He has come and had a game for us and we will leave it at that for the moment,” said Turner.

“He is under 23 and Grimsby have made a contract offer to him so we would need to pay a transfer fee (if we wanted to take it any further).”

The Town boss confirmed that two trialists who had featured in previous friendlies – Carl Regan and Matt Richards – “are not out of the equation at all.”

By JAMES GARRISON