BLACKBURN duo Craig Short and Damien Duff are facing a race against time to be fit for next week's Worthington Cup semi-final showdown with Manchester United after limping out of Saturday's game against West Ham.

Duff and Short both had to be substituted during the second half of Rovers' 2-2 draw with the Hammers after picking up hamstring injuries.

And manager Graeme Souness now faces an anxious wait to hear the full extent of the damage as the players were due to undergo scans this morning, although the initial prognosis doesn't sound too hopeful.

"It's a hamstring injury and I think it's similar to what Martin Taylor did at Southampton," said Short.

"I wasn't stretching, I was just trying to stabilise myself when I felt it in the corner.

"They'll assess it today because you've got to wait two days for a scan.

"But the doctor and Dave Fevre have said I'm probably going to miss three games.

"I can't say how long it's going to take because I haven't had too many hamstring injuries before.

"Sometimes they say four weeks and sometimes you can be back in two.

"But I'm a decent healer so, hopefully, I'll be back in a couple of weeks, which would be great.

"I'll definitely miss Wednesday but we've then got a cup game against Villa coming up so I might only miss one league game."

News of Short and Duff's injuries could hardly have come at a worse time with a string of vital cup games coming up.

Duff's injury is likely to cause the most concern because it's the third time he's suffered from such a problem this season.

That double injury-whammy summed up a disappointing afternoon for Rovers as Jermaine Defoe's late equaliser cost them victory against the relegation-threatened Hammers.

"It was a poor day for us all round," said Souness.

"It was a poor game of football. They gifted us a goal at the start, we should have gone on from there but we looked tired and the two games in three days has cost us dearly, both in terms of the performance and the two hamstring injuries we now have."

The result was all the more disappointing given the manner in which Rovers had taken four points off Manchester United and Liverpool in their two previous games.

"We never got going, did we?" said skipper Garry Flitcroft.

"We've just had two big games against Manchester United and Liverpool and I think that's maybe taken its toll on us a little bit.

"They came for a point and frustrated us and in the end they got what they wanted and we didn't.

"We changed our formation in the second half. We wanted to get Yorkie in there and just try to mix it up a little bit.

"I think the manager felt we needed a little bit more to kick-start us but that left us a little bit open at the back in the second half.

"However, once we had got 2-1 up we should have held on but it was a rubbish goal we gave away again at the end.

"It was just a long, hopeful ball in and we didn't defend it properly."