COLCHESTER United midfielder Tom Lapslie and new signing Miles Welch-Hayes could be in contention for Colchester United’s weekend trip to Carlisle United.

The former has been struggling with a knee injury, sustained during a recent under-23 match against Ipswich Town.

His last appearance was as a substitute in the 2-1 victory against Macclesfield Town, at the JobServe Community Stadium on January 18.

Full-back Welch-Hayes, meanwhile, has been working hard to top up his fitness, having not featured for former club Macclesfield since January 11.

“Tom’s had a good week of training and suffered no ill effects or reaction, which is the main thing,” said U’s head coach John McGreal.

“It’s a clean bill of health, apart from Paris (Cowan-Hall).

“He’s the only one, in terms of the first-team environment at the moment, and there are no injuries to report from last week.

“A few boys got game-time for the under-23s, on Monday (in the 5-1 defeat at Crystal Palace).

“It’ll keep them ticking over and Miles got a good 90 minutes.

“He’s up to speed now.”

McGreal and his players will be looking for a positive reaction, after the disappointment of last weekend's 2-0 defeat at home to Cheltenham Town.

"There were times in the first half where we should have been shooting, but didn't," said the U's boss.

"We were making the wrong decisions and let ourselves down in the final third.

"In general, though, I thought our performance was very good.

"Then in the second we lost our way a bit and played into their hands.

"Now it's about bouncing back and we know it's going to be a tough game.

"In addition to the travelling, Carlisle have become a bit of a tough nut to crack of late and they had a good win last week, at Cambridge.

"(Head coach) Chris (Beech) has got them going the right way.

"He was going a couple of games into his tenure when we played them before, so he's had a bit of a window to try and turn things around.

"You can see the style of football he's trying to bring in.

"But it's about a reaction, from our point of view.

"There's no point crying over spilt milk and we know we can spring ourselves back into the play-offs.

"We'll dust ourselves down and go again."