Five days before the first Test against South Africa, the West Indies' injury list is nearing crisis point.
It was such yesterday that coach Gus Logie, now 43 and well past the days when he was one of the game's finest fielders, had to be twice pressed into service as substitute on the third day of the match against Free State.
Already the selectors have had to call-up Dave Mohammed and Dwayne Smith as replacements for Jerome Taylor and Marlon Samuels, who have returned to Jamaica with injuries, new and old.
Now Sir Viv Richards and his colleagues need to choose a dozen or so players, keep them fit and ready and have Zorol Barthley, the WICB's chief cricket operations officer, arrange visas and provisionally book airline tickets ready for the quick getaway of the next one needed as a replacement.
A week after Taylor's departure, Mohammed still hadn't made it to South Africa up to last night and Smith is unlikely to be in Johannesburg until Wednesday.
Vasbert Drakes and Omari Banks have remained on but neither was fit enough to play against Free State, and they were joined yesterday by Corey Collymore who remained indoors for treatment on what manager Ricky Skerritt described as "a slight hamstring strain" while Fidel Edwards substituted.
"It was decided to rest and treat Corey as an utmost of caution but our physiotherapist (Sunit Liebenberg) reports that he should be fit for Friday's first Test," Skerritt said.
Drakes, the well-travelled, 34-year-old medium-fast bowler and lower order batsman, is still favouring a strained side muscle and hasn't played a match since the third of the five one-day internationals in Zimbabwe 12 days ago.
Even he had to come on for an over to make up the eleven yesterday while Edwards briefly left the ground.
The team's hierarchy, and he himself, are confident that he will be ready for Friday's Test but that will only be confirmed over the next couple of days.
Banks had a cortisone injection on Saturday to counter "unusual inflammation" after complaining of back pain and will have a fitness test for further assessment on Wednesday.