Parkinson became Charlton manager in November 2008

Leading scorer Deon Burton is a major doubt for promotion-chasing Charlton's trip to Southend on Friday.

The 13-goal striker was forced to come off with a recurrence of a groin injury 31 minutes into Tuesday's 2-1 defeat by Brighton at The Valley.

Burton postponed surgery to remedy the problem until the end of the season so he could play on.

Manager Phil Parkinson told BBC Radio Kent: "The heavy conditions aggravated the injury so he's a doubt."

Defeat cost Charlton the chance to go third in League One as they sought to follow up Saturday's 2-0 home win against Yeovil.

It left Parkinson to lament the team's lack of consistency since the turn of the year.

The Addicks pieced together six straight wins in August when they topped the league whereas Saturday's success against Yeovil was only their third since the turn of the year.

Parkinson said: "It's essential we return to the levels of consistency we maintained earlier in the season.

"And we're going to have to make goalkeepers work harder than we did against Brighton."

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