Colchester United club captain Luke Prosser is hoping to get the green light to step up his pre-season preparations when he sees a specialist today.

The experienced defender has not featured in the U’s opening two friendlies of the summer after undergoing knee surgery, last November.

Colchester are hoping that Prosser will be ready for the start of the new League Two season, which gets underway on August 5.

And the news they receive today will determine whether or not he is able to increase his training, in readiness for the new campaign.

Prosser, who joined the U's from their Essex rivals Southend United last summer, has not featured for Colchester since injuring his knee last November.

Kurtis Guthrie is also yet to feature in pre-season, as he regains fitness following the ankle injury he sustained last February.

But Colchester are hopeful that the striker will feature in the next fortnight, with friendly matches against the likes of West Ham United XI and Braintree Town coming up.

Colchester head coach John McGreal said: “Kurtis is still doing little bits of training and is not up to speed yet within the group.

“We’re just dipping him in and out at the minute and I’d imagine we’ll be seeing him in the next week or two.”

Prosser and Guthrie will both travel to Cheshire today for Colchester’s four-day training camp.

Ryan Jackson (tight quad) and Tommy O’Sullivan (tight hamstring) will also make the trip, despite sitting out the U’s 4-0 friendly win at Needham Market last night.

Sammie Szmodics’ brace and further goals from Denny Johnstone and Tariq Issa sealed Colchester’s win over their Bostik League premier division opponents.

“It’s about getting the minutes and trying to expose one or two of the younger boys,” added McGreal.

“We used two teams and mixed players up in different positions but most of all, it was about been wary of those injured boys.

“That’s the main concern – getting the likes of Denny Johnstone, Craig Slater, Doug Loft, Sammie Szmodics and Frankie Kent.

“There’s quite a few that need minutes so it’s another box ticked for us.

“They’re playing catch up and we’re not only trying to give them the minutes on the pitch but also work them really hard on the training pitch.

“They have fatigue at times because they’ve missed a lot of football but we’ve got to try and get them up to speed and the only way that we can do that is repetition on the pitch and through the friendly games.”

Colchester’s next friendly is against Welsh Premier League outfit Llandudno, on Friday night.