91Èȱ¬

Cornish Pirates captain Chris Morgan has been ruled out until the new year with a broken arm.

The 30-year-old flanker suffered the injury in the opening minutes of the Pirates' British and Irish Cup win over Carmarthan Quins on Sunday.

"It's a big blow because he's integral to what we're doing," head coach Ian Davies told 91Èȱ¬ South West Sport.

"Having missed him at the start of the season with the same arm injury it's not great at all."

Morgan is the latest in a series of key Pirates players to go down injured.

Fly-half Jonny Bentley has not played for a year while new signing Adam Clayton is out.

Also struggling is leading try-scorer Matt Evans, while Grant Pointer and Kyle Marriott are sidelined as well.

The club are also without dual-registered forwards Dave Ewers and Joe Buckle as they have been called back by Exeter and Bath respectively.

Davies says he has not ruled out bringing in new signings to try to cover for the problems his squad faces.

"There's quite a few players out there but we've got to make sure it's right for us in terms of the squad and the Pirates."