Colchester United will assess the fitness of forward Freddie Sears ahead of tomorrow night's vital clash with fellow strugglers Shrewsbury Town.

The U's striker was withdrawn at half-time of the U's 1-0 defeat at Crawley Town last Saturday with a hamstring problem.

U's boss Joe Dunne said: “Freddie came back out for the second half and had a tight hamstring.

“It’s happened before and we took him off and tweaked the tactics.

“It worked but it was pretty much the same players who were out there in the first half.

“He’s had hamstring injuries before so we’ll have to wait and see."

There was better news for Colchester on the injury front at Crawley, after leading goalscorer Jabo Ibehre completed 70 minutes after missing their previous three matches with pelvic and hip problems.

He was eventually replaced by Clinton Morrison and the two are now vying for a place in Colchester's starting line-up, tomorrow night.

Dunne added: “Jabo didn’t have a particularly great first half because he’s just come into the team having been out.

“It gave us a chance to rotate the two strikers with Clinton on the bench and in the second half, I thought that it was better.

“We’d planned to take him off and he’s got some game-time, so that will help us."

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