Freddie Sears has an outside chance of making a surprise return to the squad, against Bristol City tomorrow.

Sears missed Tuesday night’s 1-0 home win over Shrewsbury, after limping out of the previous weekend’s 1-0 defeat at Crawley Town.

The Colchester United front-runner tweaked his hamstring towards the end of the first half at Broadfield Stadium, and failed to appear for the second half.

Sears was expected to spend a couple of weeks on the sidelines, but now there is a chance of him returning as early as this weekend.

Manager Joe Dunne revealed: “We will see over Freddie.

“He reacted well to treatment on Sunday morning and again on Monday.

“So we’ve got him pencilled in to do some light training later this week, and we will see how he is.

“If we can add Freddie to the squad this weekend, then it will give us even more quality.”