COURTNEY Senior will receive plenty of support from Colchester United as he begins his long road to recovery, according to head coach John McGreal.

The 18-year-old wide man, who joined the U’s from Brentford on a two-year deal earlier this summer, is set to be out for a year after suffering a serious knee injury.

Senior ruptured his Anterior Cruciate Ligament in Colchester’s under-23 friendly against Ipswich Town and has since undergone surgery on the injury.

He is facing a long lay-off but McGreal said he will get lots of backing from his team-mates and U’s staff, as he battles back to fitness.

McGreal said: “Courtney was in and around the under-23s but we know what he can do.

“He’s played first-team football before and he could easily have come in and played for the first team, along with Louis Dunne who’s had a couple of injuries.

“Courtney is a talented boy and I’m sure once he’s back and ready he’ll be raring to go.

“The boys will be making sure he keeps his head up because it’s a long time for a player to be out and now it’s about the support that I’m sure he’ll have around the club.”

Colchester midfielder Doug Loft has had an injection in a bid to boost his recovery from an Achilles tendon problem.

The former Port Vale and Gillingham man has not featured for the U’s since their 2-0 defeat at Portsmouth, last month.

Loft is waiting for the inflammation and pain to subside before he returns to training.

Meanwhile, McGreal believes last week’s arrival of Tarique Fosu and Glen Kamara will boost competition for places in his squad in the coming months.

The duo have arrived on loan from Reading and Arsenal respectively, although Kamara is currently still away on international duty with Finland under-21s.

McGreal said: “Glen is a central midfielder and I thought we were a little bit light because of a couple of injuries that we’ve picked up in that area over the last week.

“It’ll get us through to January because once the window closes, that’s it.

“It’s another really good player to give us healthy competition in that area.

“It was the right time to bring the player in that we needed.

“Who’s to say in the next three or four months how injuries and suspensions are going to affect us and we needed those extra couple of bodies just to make us that little bit more competitive.

“These boys are coming here to get game time and that can only add to the competitiveness of the boys who are in these positions.”