Stephen Robinson has been dealt an injury blow after revealing Ryan Bowman will be out for six weeks.

The Motherwell striker went off injured in the Betfred Cup win over Queen of the South and will now miss the start of the Ladbrokes Premiership season.

The Steelmen have made a positive start to the new campaign with three wins out of four, but injuries to Charles Dunne and Bowman mean Robinson's strengthening of the squad in the summer transfer window will come under scrutiny early on.

"We have picked up injuries, Charles Dunne is out for a period of time and Ryan Bowman will be out for six weeks," he said. "A manager is never happy, I always want other things but we are limited with what we can do, in terms of money.

"We have got three players out at the moment, with Craig Tanner, Dunne and Bowman.

"When you put your squad on paper it looks still as strong; we have brought players in for more competition and expectations have risen, but the reality is first and foremost our goal is to stay in this division."

Robinson takes his side to Easter Road on Sunday to take on Hibernian - who are in the midst of Europa League qualifying - and they could be without key man Chris Cadden after taking a knock in the win over Clyde on Saturday.

The midfielder only returned to training on Thursday, with Robinson admitting he still had "slight concerns" over the Scotland international, but he has been happy with the form of new forwards Conor Sammon and Danny Johnson, who have enjoyed goalscoring starts to the season and could cover for the loss of Bowman.

He said: "As much as I'm not 100 per cent happy with everything, our strikers have scored goals.

"Even on Saturday when our performance was okay and we got the job done, all three strikers scored so there are lots of positives and we create a lot of chances."