Carlisle United goalkeeper Scott Simons facing another injury lay-off

The teenager, who missed a chunk of the season with a shoulder problem, now has a thumb injury.

First-year pro Simons suffered the injury in training and underwent surgery yesterday.

Manager Paul Simpson said: “He’s been out a week or two with a sore thumb, and went back to have another X-ray because the problem wasn’t going away.

“He’s had surgery [on the thumb] which will put him out for probably six or seven weeks as he goes through the rehab.”

It is a second injury blow for 19-year-old Simons in his first campaign as a professional.

The promising former youth team keeper suffered a shoulder injury in pre-season which sidelined him for months.

READ MORE: Simmo reveals transfer decision on key position

Also on the injury front, Simpson said long-term absentees Brennan Dickenson and Josh Dixon are to spend some time at St George’s Park soon to do some “intense rehab work”.

Taylor Charters and Ryan Edmondson have returned to the club after hamstring and shoulder surgery respectively, as they continue on the road back to fitness.

Jack Ellis, meanwhile, is expected back sooner. “Jack is starting to run again, he’s back on the grass,” said Simpson of the young Cumbrian defender who also suffered a hamstring injury.

“We’re still a good few weeks away in terms of Jack to be considered.

“If everything was to go really well he may have a chance for the Harrogate game [on February 4], but it’s probably more likely for the Wimbledon game the week after.”

Simpson had hoped to use this week’s Fred Conway Cumberland Cup quarter-final at Workington Reds to give some game time to Ben Barclay on his return from an ankle injury.

A frozen pitch put paid to that plan, but Simpson said the Stockport County loan defender is fully fit.

“It was part of our planning for some of the lads to get minutes [at Workington], Ben Barclay and Omari Patrick in particular, and there was probably nine of the first team squad going to play in that game.

Ben Barclay (Image: Barbara Abbott)

“It would have been a good run out for them but we can’t do anything about the weather, we have to take it on the chin.

“They’ve all had another week of training, so if they’re called upon, we may not be able to get 90 minutes out of them but we have to manage them.

“If Ben or Omari come into it, we might get 60-70 minutes out of them then need to bring them out of it.

“That’s normal, something you have to deal with all the time. We’ll see how they go over the next few weeks.

“Ben has trained all week, he’s been fine, and that will benefit him. The problem is he doesn’t have match minutes under his belt when the opportunity comes.

“We just have to manage that, but it happens quite regularly.

“Last weekend with JK Gordon I was fully aware that he might not be able to keep going for 90. We have a plan in place.

“When I go into games, I always have some sort of what-if scenarios. ‘What if we’re 1-0 down, what would I change it to, what if we go down to ten men, what if we’re winning 1-0 and I want to see a game out…’

“One of the scenarios last week was that JK’s going to come off after 60-odd minutes when the time’s right and Omari’s going to come into it. Thankfully John scores his goal, goes off to a standing ovation and everybody’s happy…”