Paul Simpson says he does not want to use injuries as an easy excuse at Carlisle United.

The Blues have been beset by injury problems all season.

And despite the long injury list appearing to catch up with the Blues in their most recent game at Doncaster Rovers, manager Simpson says they must not simply accept that as a consequence of their misfortune.

“I don’t want to accept it. I can’t accept it,” said Simpson. “We’ve got to do something about it.

“It’s really disappointing, that’s the biggest side of it – disappointing for the individual players, that they’re missing out on match time and playing games.

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“It’s very easy to say it’s catching up on us but I don’t want to do that. Because we’ve just got to keep working, and try and find a solution to it.

“We’ve looked at all of the things that could be causes, and we’re not seeing that we’re doing anything wrong in it. It’s a real blow, the numbers that we’ve got [out].”

United do not have a game this weekend and Simpson hopes the extended spell out of action will give some players the chance to return.

Omari Patrick could be back in the squad for the visit of Newport County on January 14, while Ben Barclay is getting closer to a comeback.

Assistant boss Gavin Skelton yesterday said Jack Stretton was likely to be out for two or three weeks with a hamstring injury.

Others sidelined recently include Ryan Edmondson, Taylor Charters, Jack Ellis.