Colchester United midfielder, Marcus Bean, admits that he has never experienced anything like the U’s recent run of injuries, throughout the whole of his career.

Bean himself returned to the team, after a hip injury, but the likes of Freddie Sears, Sanchez Watt, Josh Thompson and Gavin Massey were all sidelined by injuries for yesterday’s 2-0 defeat at the hands of Coventry City.

In addition, Magnus Okuonghae was suspended and fellow defender Ryan Dickson was substituted early on due to ill health.

Bean said: “I actually said to our physio, Tony Flynn – ‘that’s the worst I have seen (injury crisis) in my career.’

“It’s been a bit crazy, to be honest, and hopefully we can get at least two of them fit for next week.

“It’s difficult, especially when a lot of your attacking players are out injured, so that you can’t really take the game to the opposition.

“I think that was our downfall today.

“But I thought the boys put in a great shift, considering the destructive week that we have had, with all the injuries and illness etc.

“It was very hard. The timing of the injuries, coming so late in the week, meant that we didn’t have that much chance to prepare.

“The young boys who came in, I think they stuck to their task, and it was a great learning curve for them.

“They will come back from this, being better players, especially mentally. It was up to us more experienced players to pull them through.”

Bean certainly had no complaints with the result.

He added: “I think we can be proud of ourselves, the way we applied ourselves, but we came up against a better team in Coventry today.

“Coventry moved the ball really well, and were good in most areas of the park. But we look forward to play against them with a fully-fit squad next time.

“We knew they could be frail, if we managed to score, because they had conceded a lot of goals here.]

“We did try, we huffed and puffed, but it just wasn’t to be today.”