FA Cup: Carlisle United boss's injury update for Walsall tie

And there are fears that Nottingham Forest loanee Back could be facing a “long” spell on the sidelines.

Manager Paul Simpson has not completely ruled the duo out of Saturday’s second round tie but expects more clarity on both players in the next 48 hours.

Ahead of the Walsall trip, United are also assessing other players who have been affected by a bug this week.

Back has already had a scan and returned to parent club Nottingham Forest this week for assessment.

Both he and Feeney went off in the first half of last weekend’s 4-1 win at Salford City with hamstring problems.

Morgan Feeney (Image: Richard Parkes)

Speaking at a press conference today, Simpson said: “I can’t give you a definite on them [but] they’re both very, very doubtful for the weekend.

“We’re waiting on a second opinion on Fin’s scan that he’s had. That could be a long one if it’s all confirmed.

“Morgan’s is not as bad, but we’re probably talking a couple of weeks [out] for Morgan.

“I’m going to wait and see how they are. It’s not looking likely for this weekend but I’ll hopefully over the next few days I’ll get definite confirmation as to what they are.

“They’re both hamstring injuries, that we’ve no idea where they’ve come from, and it’s just another one of those situations we’ve got to deal with.”

Simpson says he can rely on players to step up if Feeney and Back miss out on Saturday, with Corey Whelan and Jack Ellis having deputised impressively at Salford.

He could also bring back some of his fit-again players into the squad, and confirmed he would be able to fill a nine-man bench under cup rules.

“If we lose these two lads for a number of games, we’re fortunate that we’ve got Ben Barclay coming back to fitness, he’s not a million miles away, and Joel Senior in the next few weeks will hopefully be closer to being able to come and play in a first team game,” Simpson said.

Ben Barclay is close to a return (Image: Richard Parkes)

“Although I’m focusing on making sure we’re right in terms of our first-team games, I’m also looking at our plan to make sure we’re getting games under the belt for people like Jamie Devitt, Ben Barclay, Joel Senior, Sonny Hilton, Duncan Idehen, we need them all to be up to match speed so that when their opportunity comes, they’re ready to take it.

“We were hoping to arrange a game for them this week but we weren’t able to get one. There’s a game next week that they’ll play in, and we’re hoping to try and arrange one the week after, and there’s another one, I think Accrington [in the Central League Cup] the week after that.

“We’re hoping over the three weeks we should have three games for them and, looking at the Christmas programme, we could have all of those lads back.

“The truth is, this weekend some of those lads are going to have to come into the squad if Morgan and Fin are definitely ruled out, and be part of the group to make sure we’ve got enough cover.”

Simpson said he hopes other players will not be sidelined by illness for this weekend’s game at the Poundland Bescot Stadium.

“Hopefully everybody else is ok,” he said. “There’s a little bit of a bug going around at the moment that’s affecting a few players.

“As I sit here now, there’s a couple of doubts but I’m hoping we will be able to have 20 players and the likelihood is I will fill all nine of the sub places at the weekend just to give us that cover and protection.”

Corey Whelan (Image: Richard Parkes)

Simpson added that he has every faith in Whelan and Ellis to step up if required at Walsall.

“We’re disappointed for both the lads who got injured, but the pleasing thing is whenever anybody else has had to step in this season, they’ve done a great job,” he said.

“Corey came in and Jack came in within the first 20 minutes last weekend, and you wouldn’t have known they’d been away.

“Whoever gets called in this weekend, whether it’s those two or anybody else, we just hope they’re able to go and perform.”