Colchester United were without the trio against Port Vale

The U's were without three players for their 1-0 win over Port Vale, in addition to long-term absentee Ryan Clampin.

Alan Judge (pictured below), Owura Edwards and Cole Skuse were all missing for the League Two game at the JobServe Community Stadium, due to injury.

Judge missed the game after he suffered an injury in training, the day before the game.

Brown said: “We’re going to assess Judgey through the week.

“He suffered the injury in training (on Friday).

“He was a little bit tight so we just need to wrap him up."

Edwards also missed out on playing against Vale, after the on-loan Bristol City winger suffered a shoulder injury.

And midfielder Skuse was sidelined after he sustained a cut to his head during the 2-2 draw with Leyton Orient, on Tuesday night.

Colchester will be hoping to have all three players back for their trip to play bottom side Scunthorpe United, next Saturday.

Brown said: “Thankfully, we’ve got a whole week now to rest up, try and look after the people that need looking after and try and get people fit for our next game.

“That will be the aim."

Brendan Wiredu (pictured above), Emyr Huws and Tyreik Wright all returned to the Colchester starting line-up as a result, against Port Vale.

The trio contributed to the U's crucial win and Brown stressed again the importance of having competition for places, within the squad.

Brown added: “They’re all big players for us.

“But as I’ve eluded to on many occasions in these interviews, we’ve got numbers.

“We’ve got strength in depth and when players are called upon, they need to give themselves the best chance of coming into this environment and helping the team.

“The lads that came in and the lads that we’ve asked to play 90 minutes on a regular basis, everyone has done a good job.

“But again, it just highlights that we do have strength in depth now so if we do hit a few injuries, there are obviously lads who can come in and do a really good job for us."