A philosophical Aidy Boothroyd is hoping Watford "get a little bit of luck somewhere along the line" after losing Grzegorz Rasiak for up to six weeks with a broken bone in his shoulder.

The on-loan Southampton striker sustained the injury during his first appearance for the Hornets, the 1-0 victory over Charlton at Vicarage Road, and played through the pain barrier to complete the full 90 minutes against Nottingham Forest last week. However, the Polish international is now set for a spell on the sidelines following medical advice.

Describing the setback as "a bit of a blow to us," Boothroyd said: "At the same time things always even themselves out so hopefully we’ll get a little bit of luck someway along the line and we can maintain what has been a pretty steady, sold start.

"The great thing from a manager's point of view, from my point of view, is he wanted to play on with it through the pain which is always a nice sign, but unfortunately he's been told on medical advice that he could make it a lot worse, so I'd rather lose him for six weeks than for six months.

"Andy Rolls and his team will get him fit as fast as possible."

The Watford manager confirmed Rasiak will not require surgery and will remain with the Hornets during his recuperation. However, the loss of the 29-year-old represents a major blow to Boothroyd, who brought in the 29-year-old following Darius Henderson's shock departure to Sheffield United to help solve a potential goalscoring problem in the team.

Although Tommy Smith has stepped up to the scoring plate impressively since the start of the campaign with three goals, the likes of Tamas Priskin and Will Hoskins will need to follow suit during the Pole’s absence. But Boothroyd believes there are still goals in the team.

"I think sometimes with strikers they get in some great positions and sometimes because they've maybe not scored as many as what they would have hoped that they don't pull the trigger," he explained. "But that's something I'll be encouraging us to do because if you don't shoot, you don't score.

"So we'd like one or two of the front players and possibly a midfielder and a back player to come up with some goals as well. You have to over a season. You've got to get goals from everywhere if you're going to be successful."

While Smith has "done very well" and been "in terrific form", Boothroyd acknowledged that Watford cannot just depend on one player.

"We've had that lesson this week with Grzegorz," he said ruefully. "At this moment in time we're making sure we keep as many people fit as possible, that's what we've got to do here. We've got to make sure we're the very best at getting people fit, keeping them fit, and if they're not fit then making sure they recover quickly enough so we can keep our best 11, our best 15 right, so if they're called upon they can be used."