Cork City duo Greg Bolger and Kenny Browne are rated no more than 50/50 to be fit for their side’s Europa League clash with BK Hacken in Sweden on Thursday night.
The Rebels travel to Gothenburg for the first leg of their second round qualifying clash but may be without two of their biggest players for the match.
Midfielder Bolger was recently named the SWAI player of the month for June but is a doubt with an ankle injury, while a hamstring strain is in danger of ruling Browne out.
"They might have all the stars but the real important thing for us is to gel together and start the game right and make sure that we don’t stand off them
Cork manager John Caulfield said: "That’s the biggest concern for us. You want to go into the game with your strongest 11 and Greg is 50/50. Kenny is probably 50/50 and hasn’t trained with us yet.
"Alan Bennett has a slight knock but we expect him to come through, so has Steven Beattie but at the moment Kenny and Greg are both 50/50 so we just have to wait until the day of the match and we’re going to give them every opportunity.”
Caulfield is aware of the size of the task his side face against Hacken, a full-time team comprised of some top class players.
"They’re a massive team here," he said. "When you arrive at their training ground you see all their players driving sponsored cars.
"We hear the running costs of the club are somewhere up around €25million to €30million so it gives you an idea what kind of club they are over here.
"They have nine internationals in their team. Two Finnish, a Norweigan, two Ghana guys and a Brazilian – all guys who have played in international teams – so they’re a vastly experienced and very strong side."
However, despite the gulf in resources, Caulfield believes that his side can cause a major upset and take a result home to Cork for the second leg.
The City boss is hoping that his side can catch the Swedes on the break and while he admits that the home side are the favourites, he remains full of hope.
"We’re massive underdogs but at the same time we have great resolve in the team, great commitment, great spirit and a real great attitude among the lads," he said.
"They might have all the stars but the real important thing for us is to gel together and start the game right and make sure that we don’t stand off them.
"If you give them room they can open you up and up top they have three fantastic players with lots of pace and energy and they’re scoring lots of goals. But they do concede as well and we’re hoping that on the counterattack we can cause them trouble."
