BLACKBURN Rovers boss Gary Bowyer admits he is scouring the loan market as FA Cup hero Josh King gets set to spend a fresh spell on the sidelines.

The jet-heeled King will certainly miss tomorrow’s trip to Bournemouth with the hamstring injury he sustained almost immediately after coming on in Tuesday’s 2-1 home loss to Norwich City.

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The Norwegian has undergone a scan yet it is unclear whether he will be fit for the midweek match at Sheffield Wednesday or the big FA Cup quarter-final at Liverpool on Sunday week.

Bowyer concedes his forward line does not possess another striker like King whose hat-trick in Rovers’ stunning fifth-round win over Stoke City set-up the Anfield clash.

But, while he insists King’s latest injury setback will provide another player with a chance to stake a claim, Bowyer has confirmed he is looking at the possibility of bolstering his squad.

Rovers can currently make a signing, either on loan or on a free transfer, under the terms of their embargo for failing Financial Fair Play.

And Bowyer said: “We’ve always been looking because you’ve always got to keep your eye on the market.

“I think at this moment in time you’re not seeing a great deal of movement in any of the leagues.

“But we’ll just continue to monitor that and keep working hard on that front.”

King limped off just four minutes after replacing Jordan Rhodes at half-time on Tuesday.

And Bowyer, who will have defender Tommy Spurr available tomorrow after illness, said: “The change that we made looked like it was going to pay dividends straight away because from a fantastic pass from Tom Cairney, he got in and only a good bit of defending cut out his cross.

“That was an area we thought we could target in the second half so to lose him like that was a blow.

“He’s an explosive type and those type of players are always suspect to those type of injuries.

“The lad has shown in the cup games what he is capable of so we are disappointed that we couldn’t get a run going longer for him than he has done.”

Bowyer could not put a timescale on exactly how long King, who has been restricted to just eight starts and 17 appearances in total this season, will be out for.

But he faces a race to be fit to take on Liverpool.

Bowyer said: “He’s been for a scan and it’s just going to be a case of monitoring it, I’m afraid, at this moment in time. We’ll have a clearer idea of it once it’s properly settled down.

“But it’s safe to say he won’t be involved this weekend and then we’ll just have to reassess then and go from there. “