THE fitness of key midfielders is still a worry as Kidderminster Harriers prepare for their toughest test of the season on Saturday.

Injury-hit Harriers may have to rule out all their key midfield trio for the Division Three match at runaway leaders Plymouth Argyle.

Boss Jan Molby must contend with the news skipper Mark Blake is out until November with his Achilles problem.

But midfield general Danny Williams (knee) and Richie Appleby, forced off in Tuesday's 1-0 loss at home to Macclesfield Town with more hamstring trouble, are also big concerns for the Dane.

Molby said: "Danny will have his stitches out on Thursday (today) and on Friday we will know a lot more. The turning point in the Macclesfield game was when Richie went off because he was running the game.

"It's his hamstring and it looks like he could be out for a few weeks. If he is, then that's a blow. After he went off we didn't look as good.

"We have as good a midfield three as there is in the division but we were without all of them after Appleby went off. It doesn't matter what club you are, you're going to find that difficult to deal with."

Centre-back Abdou Sall (knee), goal hope Bo Henriksen (hamstring and groin), Andy Ducros (ankle) and Sam Shilton (flu) all missed Tuesday as well with several other players carrying knocks.

It has meant call-ups for inexperienced players like Lee Ayres and Daire Doyle, a makeshift midfield and a return to starting action for others such as Drewe Broughton.

Molby admitted: "A lot of them who have come in haven't played at this level for a long time so it's difficult for them.

"Teams up there are going to have bad spells as well and we need to get back to winning but obviously Saturday's game at Plymouth is going to be very difficult.

"Of our next three games, two of them against Shrewsbury and Hartlepool are at home and if we can beat them you never know."

While Harriers have dropped to 11th in the division, they have games in hand on many of those directly above them.

However, weekend opponents Plymouth are 10 points clear of Luton Town and Mansfield Town at the top and have not lost at home since their first two games.

The Devon club, whose game at Rochdale on Tuesday was postponed due to a waterlogged pitch, drew 0-0 at Harriers in September.

Molby knows Harriers will have to start taking the chances that come their way again if they are to recover from a run of four games without a win.

He added: "For the first half an hour against Macclesfield, we have played as well as we have for quite a while but if you don't score goals you don't win games.

"We had five or six good chances in the first half which were missed by (Ian) Foster, Broughton and (Dean) Bennett."