Shrewsbury Town face their mouth-watering trip to Arsenal in the Carling Cup tomorrow without the services of their first choice centre half pairing.

Skipper Ian Sharps and Australian Shane Cansdell-Sherriff will face being ruled out for the trip to the Emirates.

Sharps pulled out of Saturday’s 3-2 win at Port Vale in the warm-up with a calf injury while Cansdell-Sherriff was taken off early in the first half with a hamstring strain.

“The chances of them both being fit for Tuesday night are practically nil,” said Town boss Graham Turner.

“We’re down to our last four defenders with the two centre halves and Carl Regan out. It happens though and people have got an opportunity and they’ve got to take that opportunity.

“We were just doing the warm-up prior to the game and Ian felt his calf go so that was obviously a setback.

“And then Shane, minutes into the game with his hamstring has to go off, so to lose your two central defenders – one of whom is your skipper is a big blow because all your experience is there. But I thought Reuben (Hazell) and Jermaine (Grandison) did exceptionally well.

“You’ve got to have a squad of players, and ours is very small this year, but you have to have people that are capable of going in not just in case of injuries but also when you want to change things.”

And Turner admitted that after a testing programme of League fixtures since the victory over Swansea in the second round of the Carling Cup, the club can now look forward to taking on Arsene Wenger’s men.

Turner added: “We’ll think about Arsenal now and see if we can get a recording of the game against Blackburn.

“Their defeat doesn’t make it any easier for us, I would imagine it will be a strong side and I imagine they’re desperate to get a win under their belts.

“Obviously we’ve got our problems but having said that we can go and enjoy ourselves there.

“The enjoyment is putting on a show, is maintaining some dignity, and that might be in the scoreline, but going there with the belief that we have the pace to go and cause them a few problems.”

By Alex James