Cherries assistant manager Jason Tindall has accused the Football League of “playing with people’s careers”.

Tindall has vented his fury after league chiefs earlier this week rejected the club’s request for a second emergency signing.

The move came after Cherries had attempted to highlight the extent of the crippling Dean Court injury crisis by submitting medical records for all their walking wounded.

However, the league claimed one of those players – believed to have been Liam Feeney – then played 90 minutes of Cherries’ 0-0 draw at Port Vale seven days ago.

The rebuff saw Cherries field a makeshift team during the JPT defeat at Northampton in midweek with twice-retired Tindall forced to don his boots.

Tindall told the Daily Echo: “It’s not an ideal situation and I think everybody knows I’m not here to play games but we didn’t have much choice.

“But with the situation we’re in and the injury list we’ve got, unfortunately, I may have to play whether I like it or not. It’s very difficult and you’ve only got to look at the players who weren’t available.

“Not only are we fighting our own injury crisis but we’re fighting the Football League and an ongoing transfer embargo.

“In my opinion, it’s unfair. But it’s the hand we have been dealt and we’re doing our best to overcome the problems. We’re trying to jump the hurdles and to land safely the other side.”

No fewer than nine first-choice players were unavailable against the Cobblers as Cherries struggled to meet league requirements for six regulars to be named in the starting line-up.

Tindall added: “We’ve got people playing regularly who are only 50, 60 or 70 per cent fit. People look at it and think we’ve got 11 players on the pitch but some of them don’t train from week to week. We just have to patch them up and put them on the pitch because of the situation we find ourselves in.

“The Football League has made it clear they won’t allow us to bring in any players. We don’t hold that against them, they make the rules and we’ve got to abide by them.

“But those rules are not only punishing us as a football club and, potentially, could be damaging the players’ careers. If you keep patching them up and forcing them to play through injuries, there has got to be a risk of long-term injury. It’s unfortunate but we’ve got no choice at the moment.”