Carlisle United's four-man fitness boost for Cheltenham Town

The midfielder has trained in the latter part of this week after a hip problem kept him out of last weekend’s 2-2 draw with Northampton Town.

It means Paul Simpson can call on Moxon for Saturday’s clash with bottom-four rivals Cheltenham Town.

And in a further boost, Simpson has Paul Huntington, Taylor Charters and Jack Ellis back available in time for the busy run of festive games.

On Moxon’s long-standing hip issue, United’s manager said: “It hasn’t disappeared, but he’s more comfortable now.

“He’s been able to train for the second half of this week after doing some rehab earlier in the week.

Owen Moxon missed last weekend's game but is back in contention for the Cheltenham clash (Image: Richard Parkes)

“We’re going to have to manage him and make sure we keep looking after him. But he gives us another option to bring into the group.”

Simpson must now decide whether to bring the Denton Holme favourite back into his side or stick with the midfield that performed well in his absence last weekend.

That included Jack Robinson in the centre alongside Dylan McGeouch, with Alfie McCalmont joining the midfield trio.

Club captain Huntington’s return from a calf injury and fellow Cumbrian Charters’ comeback from a hamstring problem are both timely, while Ellis is fit after a groin issue.

Asked if Charters and Huntington were ready to come into his thinking this weekend after absences of several weeks, Simpson said: “Yeah, they are.

“They’ve done all the work.

• Could Carlisle United reintroduce a reserve team at Brunton Park?

“Obviously they’re not fully match fit, because they’ve not played any games yet, which is a problem when you don’t have a reserve team or an under-21s team you can chuck a couple of more experienced players into.

Paul Huntington is back from a calf injury (Image: Ben Holmes)

“They are missing out on that but the way we structure our training, the physical load they do is geared around their average match data.

“If they do 600m of high speed running, we try and make sure they do two, two-and-a-half times that work throughout the week so their body’s physically used to it.

“They’re fit. They’re going to need games to get fully match fit but that’s the challenge we’ve got with any player at the moment.”

Simpson said striker Joshua Kayode remained on course for a return at the turn of the year, while keeper Jokull Andresson was likely to be fit for mid-January – not February as initially feared.