SEAN Dyche is relieved that the hamstring injury that will keep Danny Ings out of action for the best part of a month is not as bad it could have been.

Ings went off three minutes before the break at Selhurst Park on Saturday after injuring his right hamstring when stretching for the ball in midfield.

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He immediately clutched the back of his leg, but a scan on Wednesday revealed that it was just a ‘straightforward’ hamstring problem.

“I’m just pleased the scan showed something straightforward because you never quite know,” said Dyche.

“We thought it was that with the way he pulled up, but you don’t want anything untoward and it is pretty straightforward, it’s just time.

“His body will naturally heal, it healed very well after his ankle last season, so we leave him to it with the physios to get it fixed, get it mended, strengthen it and get going.”

The loss of Ings means the Clarets are without the two strikers who scored 47 goals between them last term, with Sam Vokes still recovering from a serious knee injury.

Lukas Jutkiewicz has started every Premier League game so far this season, and Marvin Sordell came on for Ings last week, and Dyche said those two, plus Ashley Barnes, were desperate for their chance in the top flight.

“There’s a trio of strikers who want to do well,” he said, “big Juke has done ever so well with his performance levels.

“He, like any striker, wants to nick a goal, and Barnesy and Marvin are all hungry for their chance to go and play in the Premier League, and it’s just my decision with the staff on who plays.”

Dyche has challenged his three fit strikers to follow in the footsteps of Ings and Vokes last season.

Before the start of the Championship season Vokes had scored 37 goals in 212 games, at a rate of a goal every 5.72 games, but in 2013/14 he scored 21 in 44 at a rate of a goal just over every two games.

Ings scored 26 goals in 45 games last season, a goal every 1.73 games, but before that he had scored 21 in 96, averaging a goal every four and a half games.

“I think there’s been a nice pathway, probably led by Vokesy and Ingsy last season,” said Dyche.

“It brings that open-mindedness for others if our players are watching that, you think why not?

“It’s not a negative thing but Vokesy’s record was up and down, Ingsy’s record was quiet but he obviously showed real signs of talent, but his actual goalscoring record was very low really if I’m honest, so I think there’s a way that we play that does open up chances for strikers, it allows them the opportunity to be in the box to score goals.

“If you remember when Charlie was sold everyone was saying what’s going to happen now? It’s a strikers job to flourish really, and we certainly think we work in a manner that allows that.

“The only pressure I ever put on a striker is to be in there to score a goal, there’s no pressure from me if you miss, it’s being in there and we’ve got people who want to score goals.”

Dyche reserved special praise for £1.5million summer signing Jutkiewicz, and he believes there is more to come from the 25-year-old who made one Premier League appearance when he was at Everton.

“We felt he was a good player and we think there’s further growth in him as a player,” he said.

“Eventually with strikers people will look at their goals but there has to be more to it, particularly with modern strikers.

“A strikers role has become more team orientated, especially off the ball now, the tactics of defending from the front have changed massively and I think there’s development in his game all-round, not just the aspect of goal scoring.”

Dyche also rubbished reports that Vokes was nearing a return from the cruciate knee ligament injury he suffered in March.

“Sam’s on his way back, but he’s got time yet,” he said, “there’s certainly no rush on him that’s for sure.

“He’s moving nicely out on the grass, but it’s a long pathway, he’ll be under no pressure from us, only to be fit properly once round, not trying to push it or rush it.

“I’m not thinking that he thinks he’s genuinely going to be ready in the next month, and I certainly don’t think he will be.”