TWO more injuries have reduced Durham to the bare bones for today's C & G Trophy second round tie against county champions Sussex at Riverside.

Graeme Bridge will be out for three to four weeks with a broken finger, while Graham Onions is unlikely to be risked after straining a hamstring at Lord's on Monday.

With Gavin Hamilton also injured, Stephen Harmison and Paul Collingwood with England in the West Indies and neither of the first-choice overseas players here yet, the 18-man squad is fully stretched.

"We could play our bowling coach, Alan Walker, but it's not an option we would want to take," said coach Martyn Moxon.

With no bowler allowed to send down more than ten of the 50 overs, the other option is for Durham to use both Marcus North and Gordon Muchall as spare bowlers in case Ian Pattison struggles again.

The all-rounder conceded 39 runs in four overs at Derby on Sunday but did better at Lord's and Moxon said: "His bowling is a bit inconsistent, but he's having to play earlier than we would have liked after the shoulder operation he had last year.

"He could have done with a bit more bowling behind him, but hopefully a run in the team will be good for him.

"It's disappointing to be so short of resources for a big game. If we lose we are out, and this is a competition in which we want to reach the final. It's an important match for us."

As with Derbyshire v Somerset, Durham and Sussex have to face each other at this early stage because they finished in the bottom five of last season's National League, along with Scotland.

Sussex were much more concerned about winning the County Championship, and although they may not care for the 45-over game they are unlikely to take this slightly longer contest lightly.

They again have Mushtaq Ahmed and Zimbabwe-born batsman Murray Goodwin as their overseas players, but are likely to show three or four changes from the team which lost a low-scoring floodlit match at Riverside last August.

Sussex were all out for 137 with Harmison taking four for 43, while Collingwood made 45 in Durham's four-wicket win.

The home team that night also featured Bridge, Phil Mustard, Martin Love and Ashley Thorpe so there will be even more changes in the Durham line-up.

Sussex are without paceman James Kirtley, who is with the England squad, while two other seamers, Paul Hutchison and Billy Taylor, have moved on.

They have signed former Pakistan paceman Mohammad Akram, who Durham looked at last year as a possible replacement for Dewald Pretorius before landing Shoaib Akhtar. Akram now has a residential qualification.

Sussex have also signed former England opener Ian Ward from Surrey, helping to bolster a strong upper order which already includes Goodwin, Richard Montgomerie and skipper Chris Adams.

In 28 matches in the knockout cup, Adams has a career average of 63.15 and Montgomerie is not far behind on 61.46. Durham's best is Gary Pratt with an average of 36.0 from five matches.

The winners will be at home on May 29 to Lancashire, assuming they win away to Staffordshire today.

Today's match starts at 10.45 and admission costs £8, or £5 for under 18s and OAPs.

Durham (from): J J B Lewis (capt), M J North, N Peng, G J Pratt, G J Muchall, G R Breese, I Pattison, A Pratt, L E Plunkett, M Davies, N Killeen, A Walker.