Paul Simpson says he hopes a few injury “niggles” will clear up in time for Carlisle United’s trip to Northampton Town.

The Blues boss says some “innocuous” issues have affected some players in training this week.

Simpson did not reveal which or how many players it concerned.

But he said he hoped it would not pose the squad problems for their clash with the Cobblers this weekend.

“We’ve had a few little things that we’ve picked up in training – innocuous things,” United’s manager said.

“We’re going to keep those in-house. We’re trying to manage those and hopefully they’ll go away before the weekend.

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“Like all football clubs we have things that occur during training and that’s what’s happened for us this week.

“We’ll just wait and see for them for Northampton.”

United are hoping to return to action at the PTS Academy Stadium on Saturday with the game at the mercy of the weather in Northampton.

If the game is on, Simpson will have Morgan Feeney back available after a hamstring injury.

Other players are working their way back from injury, and Saturday’s game comes too soon for Omari Patrick and Ben Barclay.

“With Omari we’re loading him carefully. He’s been mostly indoors, he’s running on a treadmill, and he’s doing as much work in the gym that he can do,” said Simpson.

“I was hoping he’d be ready for Bradford [on Boxing Day] but that could possibly be a little bit too early for him.

“It’s the same for Ben Barclay, he’s back with us now but he’s still got some swelling in the ankle. We’re starting to load him in the gym but Bradford will be too early.

“With those two lads you take each day as it comes. Omari has now got rid of the little issue he had and it’s fingers crossed that he and Ben will be ready to get out on the grass again next week.

“Everybody else has had an extra week of training and not missed a game – the likes of Jamie Devitt and Joel Senior.”