Carlisle United manager Paul Simpson claims he could look to add fresh faces to his squad after it was revealed that midfielder Taylor Charters is set for another spell on the injury table.
The 22-year-old suffered his fair share of hamstring issues last season and only returned to the squad last week for the Cumberland Cup tie against neighbours Carlisle City after missing the previous five fixtures. However, he suffered a reoccurence of the injury during the second half, with Simpson revealing to official club media the extent of the damage;
“I’m being told it’s a 2C tear of his hamstring. I think I’m right in saying that means he’ll be out for six to eight weeks.
“Because it’s on the same hamstring, although in a different area, we’ve just got to be careful and conservative with it. It’s a blow, a real blow for us.”
It is undoubtedly a blow for the Blues, with Charters only penning a new two-year deal in the summer after scoring the winning penalty in the League Two play-off final shootout win over Stockport County in May.
His absence – along with that of fellow midfielder Dylan McGeouch – means that th League One outfit are short of numbers in the centre of the park, leading Simpson to admit that they may have to look who is available to bolster the squad from the free agent list;
“With him being out, and Dylan McGeouch not being available as well, we are a little bit short on numbers. We’re going to have to have a look around and see if there are any free agents who are fit and ready to come in, and who can come and make an impact straight away.
“Firstly we’ve got to see if there’s anybody out there, and then see if the board will let me go and do it. I think we are slightly over the budget at the moment. Only slightly.
“This is what we’ve got, we’ve got to work with them, and hope they show the desire they did for long periods of the second half to go and affect Tuesday night properly.”
Continuing, the former England under-20 boss revealed he had held talks with the club’s head of recruitment Greg Abbott about the situation;
“To be honest, we’ve had those conversations.
“We’re very wary about taking free agents in at this stage because of the levels they’ll be at in terms of fitness, and you run the risk of them getting injured, which we can’t afford.
“We’ve just got to wait and see. It’s difficult to know what’s the right thing to do, but if there was somebody out there who we thought could come and help us, we’ll be trying to do it.
“We need to, we have to improve. I’m not deluded enough to think the whole garden is rosy because it’s not. We’ve just got to keep working to be better.”
Carlisle have struggled since their return to the third tier, winning just one of their opening 10 matches. They host Peterborough United tomorrow night before a tough trip to promotion favourites Bolton Wanderers on Saturday.
Writer’s View
Carlisle are only outside the relegation zone at the moment due to the point deductions suffered by Reading and Wigan Athletic and they could be in real danger of going straight back down to League Two if they don’t start picking up points. The recent injury setbacks leave Simpson short on numbers and he will be crying out for more players to work with in order to change the club’s fortunes.
The 57-year-old is right that this is a market fraught with risk. However, expect to see some players arrive on trial in the coming weeks.
