BURNLEY boss Sean Dyche admits he is having to be careful to manage his squad's injuries as he continues to balance the Europa League and the start of the top flight season.

The Clarets beat Aberdeen 3-1 after extra time on Thursday night to complete a 4-2 aggregate success and set up a third qualifying round tie with Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir next week.

That clash comes either side of the Premier League opener at Southampton on Sunday week while the Clarets play their final pre-season friendly of the summer against La Liga side Espanyol tomorrow.

Burnley are already without midfield pair Steven Defour and Robbie Brady and goalkeeping duo Nick Pope and Tom Heaton while Chris Wood picked up a knock against the Dons and Aaron Lennon and Stephen Ward were both replaced as precautions.

On the injuries, Dyche said: "That is the challenge of this competition, it is highly competitive as we have seen in both legs and are the players ready for that and are their bodies ready for that?

"We hope they are and a lot are but you can’t really tell truly if they are because it has come early.

"The friendly games are different, it is a different emotional response to when it means something like (Aberdeen) so there is a higher emotional stress on the body and usually you build into that and it has just come a bit quick."

Wood has a hip flexor injury which is not thought to be serious but he is unlikely to feature against Espanyol while Lennon had a tight hamstring and cramp while Ward had ice on his knee on Thursday night.

The Espanyol game will also come too soon for Heaton although Dyche said the Clarets stopper is progressing well.

"He is closer but we have got to be careful," Dyche said of Heaton. "We were in that weird predicament (against Aberdeen), we still have to know that we have a Premier League campaign coming. I was thinking that I want to win but I can’t lose my players because whatever happened (against Aberdeen) it is still not as important as the Premier League. I have still got to monitor that. The bigger picture has to still be there."

The likes of Phil Bardsley, Kevin Long, Jon Walters, Nakhi Wells and Charlie Taylor are likely to get run-outs against Espanyol with a number of youngsters also set to feature as the Clarets rest those involved against Aberdeen.