BLACKBURN boss Graeme Souness has been stunned by another devastating injury blow after Martin Taylor underwent surgery on a knee injury last night which could keep him out for the next two months.

The England Under 21 international went under the knife after suffering cartilage damage in an innocuous-looking training ground incident on Tuesday.

And he now joins fellow defenders Craig Short and John Curtis on the sidelines as Souness's injury problems begin to pile-up just six games into the new season.

"It's a blow to lose Tiny because he had come in and done well but I'm told the operation went very well and he could be back in eight weeks," said Souness.

"So, fingers crossed, he makes a quick recovery."

With Henning Berg and Gordon Greer now the only two recognised centre-backs on the books, Souness will step up his efforts to bring in new blood before the visit of Everton on Saturday.

As we revealed on Tuesday, he did make an enquiry about a target earlier this week and there is a chance of something materialising in time for tomorrow's Premiership noon deadline. But to lose Taylor at this point in the season, especially after a couple of excellent performances against Sunderland and Oldham, is a major body-blow, especially after Short underwent surgery for a similar problem just last week.

Keith Gillespie also missed last night's 1-1 draw with Bolton through injury after he, too, damaged a knee in training on Tuesday, although Souness expects the Northern Ireland international to be back in time to face Everton.

But, with David Dunn still at least a couple of weeks off a first team return, the latest injury double-whammy could not have come at a worse time.

However, Rovers' patched-up squad still pinched a point off Wanderers last night courtesy of a last-gasp equaliser from Lucas Neill.

And Souness was delighted with the way his side performed overall in the circumstances, although he felt they should have had more to show for their efforts.

"On the night, I thought we caused them a lot of problems but through our inability to put them to the sword we ended up having to settle for a draw," said a philosophical Souness.

"But I can't be critical of my team because they did everything bar putting the ball in the back of the net.

"We walloped them several times last year but we played better against them last night than we did last year."

"I thought we played some wonderful stuff and there were some wonderful individual performances.

"We limited them to maybe three opportunities and yet we were punished.

"Maybe it was the fact Rod Wallace had just come on, I don't know.

"But for us to allow the smallest man on the pitch to score from a set-piece shouldn't happen.

"That was the only really downbeat thing about the evening for us, though.

"Some of our football was excellent and I thought Tugay played very well.

"So it was a great advert for football in the North West, never mind the Premier League."