Bullish Colchester United head coach John McGreal insists he will not allow the club’s injury crisis to derail their League Two play-off push.

The U’s will be without a dozen first-team players for their game against Accrington Stanley in League Two tomorrow.

Tom Eastman, Frankie Kent, Tommy O’Sullivan, Lewis Kinsella, Lloyd Doyley, Doug Loft, Luke Prosser, Sammie Szmodics, Jermaine Grandison, Drey Wright and Dean Brill are all out, while Craig Slater, Owen Garvan and Chris Porter are doubts.

In addition, midfielder Sean Murray serves the final game of his suspension but despite his selection headache, boss McGreal is determined to remain upbeat.

He said: “The boys have done an unbelievable job to get us in a position where we are just outside the play-off positions, with the amount of injuries that we’ve had not only at this moment in time but also earlier on in the season as well.

“We’ve had so many things thrown at us this season for one reason or another but we’re still in amongst it.

“We’ve only had two defeats in 13 and it’s credit to the boys and they deserve the plaudits.

“There’s a third of the season left and it’s all to play for, for ourselves.

“We’ve got lots of home games still to play but in the meantime, we’re going game by game.

“The glass is half full and we’ve got a lot to play for, even though we’ve got the injuries we have.

“Let’s bring it on and have a good go – it’s been a while since we’ve been in this position where we’re looking upwards, in and around the top seven.

“We want to keep that feel-good factor with the fans and it’s up to us to put the performances in with whatever team we have out.

“We can name an XI plus a couple of subs now who are out.

“If you go through it, we’ve got more or less two players for each position but one of those players in each position is injured, so it’s needs must at the minute.

“Hopefully, it’ll make us stronger as a group and move us forward. We’ll be going with what we’ve got unless anything drastic happens.”

McGreal added that it will be “touch and go” on whether Slater will be fit after he missed the Crawley defeat with a groin injury.

He added: “We looked to try and get him on with about 20 minutes to go but when he was warming up, we felt that it could be a bit of a bridge too far so we left it at that.”