COLCHESTER United are waiting to hear the full extent of injuries to defensive duo Miles Welch-Hayes and Harry Beadle, following last night’s Papa John’s Trophy defeat to Gillingham.

Welch-Hayes was forced to miss the 1-0 defeat at the JobServe Community Stadium after suffering a hamstring problem in the warm-up.

And 18-year-old Beadle, who replaced Welch-Hayes in the U’s starting line-up at short notice, limped out of his senior debut after sustaining an ankle injury with 20 minutes remaining of the Group A clash.

Both players are now doubts for the U’s trip to play Barrow in League Two, on Friday night.

Colchester head coach Hayden Mullins said: “Miles felt something in the warm-up.

“We’ll assess Miles and have a look at him and see where he’s at.

“It’s always a bit worrying when someone goes down in the warm-up pre-game.

“He felt something in his hamstring.

“Harry’s got a bit of an ankle injury.

“We don’t know the extent yet but we’re going to have to get it assessed.

“Harry’s a young man and it was a tough game for him to come into.

“I thought he did really well and the lads around him like Easty (Tom Eastman) and Coxy (Cameron Coxe) really helped him.

“We were really pleased with him up until his injury.”

Gazette:

Colchester were forced to play the final 20 minutes plus stoppage-time against Gillingham with only ten men, following Beadle’s injury.

The U’s, who made seven changes to their starting line-up against Gills, had already made all three of their permitted substitutions when Beadle (pictured above) limped off.

“We had one eye on Friday so we made two changes at half-time and tried to look after the boys,” said Mullins.

“We play a day closer than Saturday and if it were a Saturday game, it would be totally different.

“I wanted to look after a couple of the lads and we came through it quite unscathed.

“Harry going down is a bit of a blow.

“We got Luke Hannant on and he needs some minutes as well and when Harry goes down, it leaves you short but that’s football.”