NO sooner had Jamie Turley started to settle into the Eastleigh team than he limped back out of it.

The England C defender cut a forlorn figure as he trudged down the tunnel clutching the back of his left leg after just 35 minutes of Saturday’s 3-3 Vanarama Conference draw against Telford.

The Spitfires return to action at Southport tonight, but neither Turley nor fellow centre-back Dean Beckwith will be part of the travelling party which departs for Merseyside at 12 noon.

Turley turned down the offer of a new contract with Forest Green Rovers at the end of last season and was on the point of signing for Swindon Town when he broke his arm in June.

With the injury apparently healed, he trained with Bristol Rovers but Eastleigh nipped in to sign him in September while The Pirates awaited the results of a doctor’s report on the arm.

Turley made a man-of-the-match debut for Eastleigh against Braintree on September 20, but subsequently knocked the arm in training and didn’t get the all-clear to play again until Grimsby’s visit two weeks ago.

His long lay-off has now caught up with him with manager Richard Hill explaining: “Jamie’s got a slight strain on his hamstring. Hopefully it’s nothing two or three weeks won’t cure.

“This happens when players have missed a lot of games.

“I came back from two years out with a knee injury. It was great to start with but suddenly you get a calf strain, a hamstring strain, a groin strain because you’ve not had the intensity of a pre-season and you’re up against players who’ve probably been playing on a regular basis.

“No one’s more frustrated than Jamie and it’s frustrating for us too. He’s a good player and, for a young man, he’s got quite a bit of experience.”

Although Beckwith is back in training after a shoulder injury, Hill is putting safety first, reasoning: “If he falls on the shoulder again, we could lose him for the rest of the season. He’s got to be right.

The same goes for a third Spitfires centre-back, Paul Reid, who is unlikely to feature tonight having been playing in discomfort.

“Reidy’s been getting through games, but he’s not right,” said the boss. “Signing Joe Partington (on loan from AFC Bournemouth) gives him a bit of time to rest.”

Southport are hovering just above the relegation zone in 20th having lost three on the bounce under new manager Paul Carden, who last month replaced Everton-bound Gary Brabin.

The eighth-placed Spitfires beat the Sandgrounders 2-1 at home in the league but lost by the same margin in the FA Cup second round on Merseyside, and Hill warned: “It doesn’t matter what position they’re in, it’s always going to be tough up there – and even tougher in midweek.

“From a cost efficiency point of view it’s better to go up on the day, but I do find it odd that we had Southport given to us as a midweek fixture – and this is not a rearranged game – when Aldershot away was on a Saturday.

“Southport’s 250 miles away.

“Sometimes there could be a bit more common sense applied, but this is a national league and we’ve got to do it.”