Colchester United will wait for as long as possible to make a decision on Richard Brindley’s fitness ahead of their meeting with Portsmouth tomorrow.

Brindley, who has been one of the U’s most consistent performers this season at right-back and wing-back, has sat out the last two games because of a calf injury.

The former Norwich City youngster has not trained all week because of the problem but Colchester head coach John McGreal says he will give him every possible chance of featuring against Pompey, at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

McGreal said: “Richard hasn’t trained.

“He’s played a lot of minutes this season and we’ll wait until the last minute just to see how he is, because he’s been an important member of the club.

“We’re at that stage where we’ll give the boys as long as they need.”

Colchester still have a dozen players sidelined due to injury but have been boosted by the return of Sammie Szmodics and Lewis Kinsella, who have both recently returned from long-term lay-offs.

Szmodics came off the bench to score the U’s equaliser in their 1-1 draw at Cambridge United last weekend but with the games coming thick and fast, boss McGreal says he will have to manage those players who are returning to match fitness.

“There’s three games in seven days coming up and we have to think about that,” said McGreal, who has confirmed that midfielder Tommy O’Sullivan has returned to training following his knee injury.

“It’s not just Sammie, we’ve got Lewis Kinsella too who has only just come back after four months and played for the under-23s.

“But we still have to manage these boys, because we can ill-afford to have any more injuries between now and the end of the season.

“Sammie’s only had 45 minutes and we can’t flog them to break down.

“We put him on for 15 minutes but Sammie being Sammie, he wants to run around and he does get in the mix and put himself about.

“We have to put the reins on him a bit and make sure he doesn’t break down because we want him to be available until the end of the season.

“He’s one we have to manage.”

Meanwhile, boss McGreal has hinted he may change the side’s formation against Portsmouth.

He added: “We went with a different game plan at Portsmouth earlier in the season and it’s something that we’re thinking of again, this week.

“We’ve got options and we’re ready to tweak the system as well as we went 4-3-3 last week.

“That’s a good asset that we’ve got at this football club and we have bodies coming back.”