Hampshire's hopes of silverware have suffered a double setback - Stuart Clark will not be returning and Nic Pothas is out for three weeks.

But director of cricket Tim Tremlett has revealed that Hampshire are likely to announce the identity of a second overseas player "in the next 24 hours".

The identity of any replacement for Clark may partly be determined by the seriousness of the injury to Pothas's left eye socket.

Pothas is out for a minimum of a fortnight but will be out for longer if a second X-ray tomorrow reveals that he suffered a fracture during the second session of the current Championship match against Warwickshire at The Rose Bowl.

Physio Andrew Nealon said: "The swelling has gone down which is encouraging, so we should have a much better idea of the injury after the X-ray."

Pothas will also see a specialist tomorrow and will definitely miss Hampshire's next two Championship matches, against Durham at the Riverside and Sussex at the Rose Bowl, as well as the rest of the Warwickshire match and the day-night Pro40 opener against Worcestershire at flood-hit New Road on Friday.

If the X-ray reveals Pothas has suffered a fracture, he may even struggle to make the Friends Provident Trophy final against Durham at Lord's on August 18.

That would complete a double blow as Hampshire were yesterday told that Clark would not be returning for next month's showpiece.

Clark was last week named in Australia's 30-man provisional squad for the Twenty20 World Cup along with Adam Voges.

It will be a major surprise if he is not in the final party of 15, which will be announced next week and which has a four-day training camp led by new Australia coach Tim Nielsen next month.