Colchester United midfielder Tom Lapslie insists they cannot allow the club’s mounting injury list to distract them from their League Two promotion push.

The U’s head to Grimsby Town tonight with more than a dozen players sidelined, with leading scorer Kurtis Guthrie set to sit out only his second league game of the season.

Guthrie was carried off with an ankle injury in the closing stages of Colchester’s 2-1 win over Hartlepool United last weekend, adding to the club’s injury woes.

The U’s are likely to learn more about the extent of Guthrie’s injury tomorrow when the swelling on his ankle has gone down.

But while he has sympathy for his sidelined Colchester team-mates, Lapslie has stressed their remaining fit players have to concentrate on what is happening on the pitch, not off it.

Lapslie told the Daily Gazette: “It’s something we have to accept.

"I feel bad for the boys who are injured and I was there for myself, having missed ten games after the Blackpool game earlier in the season.

“I know how it feels and I know it must be gutting and hard for them to watch, at times.

"But we can’t let that affect us too much on the pitch and I’m sure the boys who are injured wouldn’t want us to worry about them or feel sorry for them.

“It hasn’t been the same XI throughout the season.

“It’s not like Leicester last year where it was the same team week in, week out.

“We train every day with each other and there are no excuses.

“You play with who you’re next to and you have to try your best in every game.”

Colchester head into their game at Grimsby tonight lying seventh in the table, with 13 matches remaining.

John McGreal’s side are eight points off third-placed Carlisle United and the automatic promotion places but Lapslie insists they are not looking too far ahead.

He said: “There is talk of where we want to finish but we’re not getting too carried away and we’re keeping our feet on the ground.

“There’s a one game at a time attitude among us.

“We’re only eight points now behind Carlisle who are third so if they slip up a couple of times and we get a few wins, who knows where we can go.”