Shrews loanee Akwasi Asante out injured
Shrewsbury's need for front-line signings has become more pressing after loanee Akwasi Asante was ruled out for up to three weeks with a hamstring strain.
The 20-year-old will sit out tonight's Greenhous Meadow friendly with parent club Birmingham City, with the game against the Championship side kicking off at 7.45pm.
And Asante is also likely to miss the League One opener against Milton Keynes Dons a week on Saturday.
Asante has impressed in three warm-up games, scoring in two of them, but his rehabilitation will eat into an initial one-month loan spell agreed with Blues.
Town boss Graham Turner said: "It looks like Akwasi could be out for two to three weeks. It's unfortunate as he was beginning to display what he can do with two goals in three matches.
"It's a blow to lose him but the search will continue up front."
But the earlier kick-off to the Football League season has hampered Shrewsbury's efforts to persuade Premier League clubs to part with promising youngsters.
Turner, though, is still favouring following the loan route with several potential deals in the pipeline while currently only one permanent transfer target is in sight.
He said: "Quite a few clubs have said they'd let their players out, but not for another couple of weeks.
"That is the difficulty with our season starting two weeks before the Premier League, whose sides want to keep their players for a bit longer through pre-season.
"We have waited for decisions from elsewhere for quite some time. At the moment, there is one permanent we would like and the others are loans.
"But I don't mind taking loan players if the quality is there. I'm not afraid to take loan players like Tom Eaves because they can make a difference."
Second-choice goalkeeper Joe Anyon is set for a full 90 minutes against Birmingham, whose boss Lee Clark has been busy in the market over the summer.
New-boys Neal Eardley, Matt Green, Tom Adeyemi and Andrew Shinnie could all feature.
Turner added: "Birmingham have signed a few players so they will be a threat next season and it should be a hard workout for us.
Meanwhile, former Town striker Luke Rodgers has returned to Scandinavia to join Swedish second-tier side Hammarby.