Micky Mellon says James Norwood will be assessed "over the next 24 hours" after Oldham's top scorer limped off in the second half of their goalless draw at relegation threatened Ebbsfleet United.

Norwood had just had a shot at goal when he pulled up with an apparent hamstring injury just before the hour.

The 33-year-old would have been an absentee in the game at Eastleigh on January 20 had it not fallen foul of the cold weather, having strained his hamstring in training in the lead-up to the fixture.

The postponement gave Norwood additional time to recover and he played in the next game, at home to Barnet the following Tuesday, and scored two penalties in the 2-0 win.

But the former Barnsley striker looked in some discomfort when he limped off the pitch, returning to the dugout shortly afterwards with a bag of ice on the back of his leg.

Mike Fondop replaced the front man and was unlucky not to score with a curling long-range shot and a couple of headers.

Chances for Latics were otherwise at a premium as they found themselves stifled by a team that, after a change of manager, are looking to improve their survival chances and climb out of the bottom four.

Oldham went into the game hoping for a sixth straight away win - particularly after results earlier in the day meant they slipped out of the play-off positions.

But after a promising opening 10 minutes or so, momentum waned and they never really threatened a return to the top seven.

"It was hard fought," said Mellon of the point.

"We'd have to say that we were made to battle. Clean sheet. They're they positives.

"Things that we'd want to do better, we'd want to pass it better, of course. There's a lot of stuff we want to work on to try to improve. But at the end of the day when you look at it now it was a hard fought game, two teams trying to get a victory at an odd kick-off time. That was strange for us. But you take what you can and you move on.

"We could have been better with the ball in order to try to get ourselves into better positions. I think we gave it away a bit cheaply at times or made the wrong decision, but that's something that we'll work on."

Mellon added: "It was a real battle. A difficult game for both sides, both sets of players giving it everything. You've just got to take what you get out of it, look for the positives and work on the things you can get better at."

The Norwood incident summed up a disappointing day, although Mellon said they would wait for a prognosis.

"We'll see in the next 24 hours but it's looking like it's his hamstring but we'll look at that and see what the extent of it is in the next 24 hours," added the Latics boss.