Colchester United head coach John McGreal says striker Kurtis Guthrie is likely to undergo a scan on his ankle after he was stretchered off in the closing stages of their 2-1 win over Hartlepool United.

Guthrie scored his 12th goal of the season against Pools and also won the penalty that Chris Porter converted but was carried off following a challenge with Pools' Scott Harrison.

McGreal said: "Kurtis is gutted and he’s really low at the moment.

“He’s got big packs of ice all over his ankle and I’m guessing it’ll need a scan so hopefully, it’ll settle down.

“There wasn’t a malicious intent but Kurtis is a tough boy and he was hurt so we’re hoping the swelling will go down."

After a goal-less first half, second-half goals from Guthrie and Porter put Colchester in command against Hartlepool.

And although Nathan Thomas pulled a goal back for the visitors with eight minutes remaining, the U's held on for a second successive win.

The victory helped them consolidate their place in the League Two play-off positions.

McGreal added: “A win’s a win and the points keep us in those play-off positions and we’ll just keep plugging away.

“We made it a little bit difficult for ourselves and it was a poor goal to give away, especially going 2-0 up.

“We didn’t really get going in the first half and Hartlepool countered quite well.

“The players knew at half-time that they needed to do better in the second half and we just reiterated habits and what we’ve been doing of late and what’s got us good results and I thought that showed in the second half.

“It was a terrific first goal for us which ended in a great delivery by Richard Brindley and Kurtis (Guthrie) getting his head on it for us and he won the penalty for us, too.

“I thought we were a lot better in the second half performance-wise but we just knocked off a bit and they’ve scored.”