The Western Force have copped a hammering on the injury front but it is a body blow from the Australian Rugby Union that has Super 14 coach John Mitchell seething.

Star Wallabies flanker David Pocock (finger) became the latest player to join the Force's bulging injury list on Wednesday, joining No.8 Richard Brown (shoulder), winger Cameron Shepherd (thigh), former Springbok Andre Pretorius (hamstring) and one-Test Wallaby Mark Bartholomeusz (neck) on the sidelines.

Pocock must have a finger in his left hand set in a splint for six weeks after tearing the tendon from the bone in the Force's 24-15 home loss to the Brumbies last Friday night.

Brown dislocated his shoulder in that match and while he will avoid surgery for now, the bustling No.8 will spend at least six weeks on the sidelines and may still have to go under the knife if the shoulder doesn't heal adequately.

The Force had convinced former crowd favourite Scott Staniforth to return to the club as an injury replacement for Shepherd, who is out for at least six weeks.

But the ARU blocked the move due to the 32-year-old still having one more year to run on his contract at Japanese club Yokogawa.

While Staniforth is not required back in Japan for pre-season training until August, the ARU doesn't want players switching between overseas and Super 14 contracts.

"The thing that I'm annoyed more about is the number of blockages and hurdles in terms of trying to replace these players," a frustrated Mitchell said on Wednesday.

"That's the thing that annoys me the most.

"There are just so many roadblocks occurring and we are unable to bring quality as a result of these roadblocks.

"Strategically I really don't agree with the thinking and as you can see on the weekend we've always been a very good club and had a mandate of developing youngsters.

"We had two young lads on the bench who are 18 years of age and probably still a year or two away from this level of football.

"We're in this situation again and I just think that it's unfair on the team and players at Super 14 level to be experiencing this kind of situation.

"I'm not prepared to go into detail as such, but it's clear where that's coming from and that is the thing that annoys me the most."

Richard Stanford and Sam Wykes are expected to move into the back row in place of Pocock and Brown in Saturday's away match against the Hurricanes, with Tom Hockings to partner Nathan Sharpe in the second row.

And while the calls are growing louder for teenage sensation James O'Connor to move from fullback to five-eighth after Sam Harris' nightmare debut in the No.10 jersey against the Brumbies, Mitchell said he simply didn't have the resources to make the switch.

"I don't think we have another fullback in the group at Super 14 or international level, so all those Einsteins that think that No.15 should move to 10 might like to take a look at our resources before making a comment," he said.

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