Sonny Hilton is set to be out for up to eight weeks in the latest injury blow to hit Carlisle United.

The Fulham loanee missed last night’s victory at Grimsby Town.

And manager Paul Simpson revealed after the game that attacking midfielder Hilton had damaged ankle ligaments.

It is the latest in a string of injuries to hit the Blues in the early stages of the season.

“He’s ruptured his ligaments at the front of his ankle,” Simpson said.

READ MORE: Grimsby Town 1-2 Carlisle United - as it happened!

“He went for a scan [on Tuesday] and we got the results just before the game.

“He’s out for six to eight weeks.

“It’s horrible news for Sonny. It’s an injury he’s had before a few years ago. There’s a little bit of hope it might heal quicker than that because he’s done it before, but we’ll just wait and see.”

United’s ongoing injury problems meant they had a very inexperienced bench at Grimsby.

While it was a positive night on the pitch, Simpson admitted he was “getting annoyed” with the number of players Carlisle have had sidelined.

He hopes to have at least two of the injured players back involved on Saturday for the visit of Crewe Alexandra.

“Morgan Feeney and Omari Patrick were very close to being fit for tonight and I really want them available for the weekend,” said Simpson after both players missed the Blundell Park encounter with hamstring issues.

“I’m not saying they’re going to start because they’re going to have to work like these lads have tonight and earn their place back in the side.

“But I want some players back fit. I’m starting to get annoyed with the injuries now.

“When I look at them all, we’re trying to work out where the problems are coming and how we’re doing it.

“We’ve got Sonny, Ben Barclay, Ryan Edmondson rolling their ankles with awkward landings – you can’t blame training for those, and they’re in matches. “We’ve got three ACLs [anterior cruciate knee ligament injuries] in Josh Dixon, Brennan Dickenson and Joel Senior; we can’t legislate for why people keep getting ACLs in today’s game.”

Simpson said some of the players working their way back took part in a training session on Tuesday back in Carlisle, with Ryan Edmondson getting closer to a return.

“We left [for Grimsby] just before 9am, but Gav [Skelton, assistant manager] and Ross [Goodwin, physio] stayed behind to do a session with a number of players – Tobi [Sho-Silva], Ryan, Ben, Morgan, Omari.

“I need [players] to be training Wednesday and Thursday-Friday before we can consider putting them in for the weekend. This weekend might still be too soon but I’ll assess that later in the week.”