BURNLEY striker Sam Vokes is touch and go for tomorrow’s trip to Cardiff City.

Vokes missed last Saturday’s visit of unbeaten Brighton with the groin strain he suffered a fortnight earlier against Wolves.

A scan has revealed no significant damage, and manager Sean Dyche is set to give Vokes every chance of proving his fitness.

But the Burnley boss said he would continue to err on the side of caution and not risk a long-term problem if there was any element of doubt.

“He’s good generally, he’s been on the grass so we’ll see how he responds,” said Dyche, who when asked if he was touch and go last weekend added: “He’s still a bit like that.

“We’ve had the injury scanned and it’s nothing major but it is still one that has to be taken care of to make sure it doesn’t turn into anything longer term.

“He’s been moving well all week but we’ve just got to be assured that he’s capable of playing.”

Rouwen Hennings and Chris Long will battle it out for a starting place alongside top scorer Andre Gray if Vokes is forced to miss out again.

Dyche remains pleased with the competition up front despite the absences of both Ashley Barnes and Lukas Jutkiewicz who have are ruled out with long term cruciate knee ligament injuries But while last night’s loan deadline passed without further additions the Turf Moor chief said feelers had been put out for targets with a view to making permanent signings in January.

“We like the squad we’re working with but on the other hand we are open to the idea of more players coming in and the right types, ones that we feel are at least going to challenge the group even further,” he said.

“That often brings the demand and improves the quality of how you work, and if you’re improving all of those things you get better outcomes.

“We’re going well at the moment, we want to keep winning games and win even more games.

“There are players out there who we think can add to that. Some we’ve just made calls on and made sure people are aware of our interest and others there will be more clarity possibly in January as regards purchasing so we’ll have to wait and see.

“As ever we’re always monitoring the market because it does change quickly.”

Burnley are set to find out how much they will receive in compensation for the loss of Danny Ings to Liverpool at the end of his contract in the summer.

But Dyche said the figure would have no bearing on the targets earmarked for January.

“It won’t impact at all. That’s an historical situation from Danny leaving the club,” he said.

“There’s finance available, there are situations that may arise - I say ‘may’ because there are no givens on the transfer side of things.

“We’re active beyond the Danny Ings situation, there’s forward planning for the club, we’re on a very good platform financially as everyone knows because we have attempted to be clever and sensible with spending while working on and off the pitch to improve the infrastructure even further.

“A lot goes into it, but we are active nonetheless.”

He added: “We’ve been very sensible in how the club’s operated from board level through the chief executive to myself.

“There is a payback for that and that allows you the chance if you wish to be productive in the market if someone comes available you are in a position to at least activate certain situations.

“We all know it’s not a bottomless pit of finance available but we think there’s good situations that are possible and we would be in a position to possibly operate on them.”