George Elokobi has been a professional footballer for the last 13 years, since arriving at Colchester United from non-league Dulwich Hamlet in 2004, but even he had never experienced the injury woes that beset the U’s during the opening few minutes against Barnet on Saturday.

The 31-year-old could hardly believe his eyes as fellow defenders Frankie Kent and Lloyd Doyley were sidelined by injuries, having already lost centre-half Tom Eastman to long-term injury at Blackpool the previous weekend.

“I’ve not known so many injuries in the space of 10 minutes, that was so quick,” admitted Elokobi, following the 2-1 home win over the Bees.

“Tom (Eastman) had already been injured, but I knew that we had strength in depth, which was going to be massive for us because everyone is going to be needed.

“Now we’ve got to look at ourselves, continue to train hard but make sure that we pull out of challenges in training, so as not to let these freak injuries take over.

“At this rate, we’ll need Owen Garvan coming in to play at centre-half, so I pray that we don’t get anymore injuries!” added Elokobi.

Elokobi began the afternoon playing on the left-side of defence, but soon switched to sweeper following the injuries to Kent and Doyley.

And he played a key role in helping the U’s to their fifth successive home win – Saturday’s 2-1 win over Barnet was actually the club’s first home game for five weeks.

“It felt like so long since we had last played here, about seven weeks!” admitted Elokobi.

“I think this win is up there with the best win we have had this season, seeing as what happened in the first 10 minutes to young Frankie (Kent) and obviously to Lloyd Doyley.

“To lose Frankie in that manner was a shame for us, because he has been fantastic for us in recent games, but it’s testament to us that the lads who came in to replace these boys, in the shape of Alex Wynter and Matt Briggs, did so well. It shows that we have such strength in depth going into the final few months of the season.”