Colchester United will almost certainly need to recruit another attacking player, during this month’s transfer window, if they are to sustain their League Two promotion push.

East Anglian Daily Times: Match action: Tom Lapslie is felled by Mal Benning, during Colchester United's 3-2 defeat to Mansfield Town. Picture: STEVE WALLERMatch action: Tom Lapslie is felled by Mal Benning, during Colchester United's 3-2 defeat to Mansfield Town. Picture: STEVE WALLER (Image: � Copyright Stephen Waller)

The U’s attacking options are very limited, especially without the services of second top scorer Luke Norris, who is set for another lengthy spell on the sidelines due to injury.

Former loanee Aaron Collins returned to his parent club Wolves at the start of this month, so the U’s are down on numbers as they aim to remain in the top seven during the last three months of the campaign.

Norris missed out on Saturday’s dramatic 3-2 home defeat at the hands of promotion rivals Mansfield Town, leaving Mikael Mandron to retain his starting place up top, and with only the inexperienced Junior Ogedi-Uzokwe as an out-and-out striker on the bench.

With regards Norris’ latest injury blow, McGreal said: “Luke’s standing foot went from beneath him while he was taking a shot the other day.

“He’s wobbled his ankle again, so he went to see a specialist on Wednesday. We’ll see how we can build that up, but I imagine he will be out for a number of weeks.”

Norris initially damaged his ankle early on during the 1-0 home win over his former club Swindon Town in early November.

He was expected to be out of action for several months, but actually returned after just five weeks, so hopefully another quick recovery is on the cards.

Although Norris is the second leading scorer with eight goals, he has only actually scored once in his last 16 appearances, and not hit the net in his last 12 outings.

The search goes on, as it always goes on,” insisted McGreal, with regards a new signing.

“Saturday’s defeat has nothing to do with that. If we don’t manage to get anyone in, then we know what we have got.

“We move on. We only lost three points (to Mansfield), just as we only won three points at high-flying MK Dons (1-0 away win before Christmas).

“The lads were sore in there. They were really sombre and it was really quiet, and that’s not like us really – win, lose or draw.

“We’ve got to work on that last half-hour, when we conceded three sloppy goals, but we were terrific for the first 50 minutes.”