MICHAEL Turner is 50/50 for Southend United’s clash with Accrington Stanley at Roots Hall on Saturday.

The experienced defender was taken off at half-time at Portsmouth on Saturday after picking up a hamstring problem.

But the centre-back is not facing an extended spell on the sidelines, much to the relief of Blues boss Chris Powell.

“Michael is fine,” said Powell.

“I would say he’s 50/50 for the Accrington game at the moment.”

Powell is currently desperately short of options at the back with Jason Demetriou (knee) and Harry Lennon (broken leg) both ruled out until mid-January.

Ben Coker (knee) and Harry Kyprianou (Achilles) have both been ruled out for the rest of the season following operations while Rob Kiernan has been sidelined since August 2017 with knee problems.

As a result, Powell currently has just four fully fit defenders to pick from in his heavily depleted first team squad.