Alfie Mawson has admitted Swansea City should have been able to cope with the injuries they suffered on their way to a 2-1 defeat at Hull City.
The Swans lost Fernando Llorente and Angel Rangel before the game itself, while Martin Olsson also picked up a knock.
But goalscorer Mawson said: “It is disappointing because it was an opportunity to move further away from a team near us in the table.
“We didn’t play as well as we have been, and we failed to take our chances while they did.
“Performances like today have to go out the window. We suffered a few injuries during the game and although we have the quality to deal with that we didn’t show it today.
“It’s tight around the relegation zone. There is a small gap between us, but it’s all about what we do from this point forward.
“Now we have to dust ourselves down and make sure we are ready for next week.”
Head coach Paul Clement is hopeful that Llorente’s injury will not rob him of the Spanish international’s services in their battle to stay in the Premier League.
Clement, who has done such a sterling job in turning around Swansea’s fortunes since being brought on board in January, conceded after the defeat that the club are still far from being out of the woods in the scrap for survival.
Rather better news for him, though, is that the injury to his top scorer Llorente, who was forced to limp off just before halftime, does not look likely to keep him out of action.
“Fernando Llorente has been a key player to us recently and gives us lots of different threats. I don’t think it is serious, I think he has a dead leg,” Clement told the BBC.
Swansea did not have much luck with Rangel also having to come off in the first half while Olsson also reported an injury.
“Those two injuries in the first half have hurt us and in the second half we were limited to what we could do,” said Clement.
“Angel Rangel’s is an injury to the ankle. I’m not sure how serious that one is. Martin got a knock on his ankle too. He was not 100 percent but was able to continue.”
Clement was not about to use the injury disruptions as an excuse for Swansea’s poor defending, though.
“Overall, we have to be disappointed with how they scored and how open we were,” he said, irritated at how Oumar Niasse’s second-half double put Hull out of sight before Mawson’s injury-time goal proved too little, too late for the Swans.
“I didn’t think we were anywhere near safe and we are not anywhere near safe now. We have 10 games to go and have to bounce back next week against Bournemouth.”
Swansea, still in 16th place, are now only three points ahead of 18th-placed Hull as the relegation plot thickens.