Defender gives Carlisle United fitness boost for Swindon Town trip

The experienced defender was back in full training today after the groin problem that saw him substituted against Grimsby Town last Saturday.

Manager Paul Simpson said the Blues have carefully managed Huntington’s workload through the week and the signs were positive for Saturday.

“We nursed him through the first three days of the week, and then he did a run on his own on Wednesday,” said Simpson, who could also add fit-again Ryan Edmondson and Ben Barclay to his squad at Swindon.

“He’s trained fully today and so he should be fine for the weekend.”

The influential Huntington came off with 20 minutes to go in the 2-0 victory, United having hoped they had replaced the Carlisle-born star before the problem got worse.

“I'm hoping that's the case. And credit to him for that. He knows his own body. He knows what he can and can't do,” said Simpson.

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“And I think the fact that we were 2-0 up made it easy for him to say, ‘Look, I need to come out of it’. So thankfully we got him off.

“He’s at that stage of his career where we have had to manage it. He doesn't do all of the sessions. He knows what he needs to do himself in the first part of the week and it’s a case of just making sure it's right.

“When I went and met him in the summer and talked to him about coming in, I spoke to him that the priority was for him to play. I want him to play as many games as he's fit and available for selection, and he's certainly done that.

“He's had a real good run. And we've sort of helped that by managing his training load and we've just got to keep our fingers crossed that we can keep him fit and available for selection.”

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Simpson said wing-back Joel Senior is also back in contention after the sickness and diarrhoea bug that saw him out of the starting line-up against Grimsby.

“He's fine and he's trained all week, so he's back to full strength,” said the Blues boss.

“My concern last week was he’d hardly eaten for 36 hours, so he's now had a week of feeding himself up again.”

Simpson confirmed striker Edmondson and defender Barclay were possibilities for the weekend after coming through an hour unscathed in a comeback game at Workington Reds in Tuesday’s Fred Conway Cumberland Cup defeat.

“They are under consideration,” said the Blues boss. “So we've got the 18 from last week and then Ryan Edmondson comes back into it and Ben Barclay, so we're getting better numbers available for us.

“It's great. We want those options. Ryan Edmondson gives us a different type of striking threat – he is an aerial threat for us, he's got physical presence and I think he looks fit and lean at the moment as well.

“He looks to be in real good shape with the work that he's done. He's trained with us for a good few weeks now. So he certainly comes into the reckoning for the weekend and then we'll see where we'll go from there.”

Ben Barclay could also come back into the reckoning this weekend (Image: Ben Holmes)

Simpson said Jamie Devitt is getting closer, having trained fully next week, and United’s boss plans to involve the midfielder and others in a reserve friendly next week.

United’s boss said Fin Back could be back with the squad by the end of this month, while Taylor Charters, Brennan Dickenson and Jack Ellis have been doing some running work this week.

The Blues are also aiming to continue building up Josh Dixon’s match fitness after he played his first 15 minutes on Tuesday since returning from a cruciate knee ligament injury.

On the midfielder, Simpson said: “It’s going to be a bit of a challenge because we don't have a reserve or an under-23s team where we're going to get a lot of games.

“We have a plan around Josh and all of the other lads who have not been starting in the first team in that we're trying to organise the game for next week for them to play in, where everybody will be involved in it who's not been getting minutes, so that everybody gets up to speed and then we'll probably leave it for a couple of weeks and try and get another game.

“So for Josh, it's a case of just playing when he can. We always wanted to get maybe 15-20 minutes into him on Tuesday night.

“Next week it will be looking to maybe get 45 minutes if he can deal with that, and then we'll just keep building it in the next game, and we'll just keep working with him – unless another opportunity comes up where we can get him out on loan at one of our local teams to be able to build up his fitness that way.

“But the problem we have with that is that everybody has their own challenges that they're going for and they don't necessarily want to just put a player in that's going to do us a favour.”