Carlisle United boss on Christmas training and defender blow

The Blues boss feels it remains the right thing to give the players the day with their families ahead of the return to action on Boxing Day.

Simpson explained that players will carry out some fitness work at home on a day they would not normally be doing an extensive session in any case.

He said the accent remained on recovery before they look to put things right at Fleetwood Town on Tuesday.

“The plan has always been to give them the day with their families,” said the United boss.

“I’ve been at clubs where you get them in [on Christmas Day] and you’re completely wasting your time.

“They’ll have work to do at home. The truth is, on a second day recovery, which is what Christmas Day will be, they do very little anyway.

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“We’ll get them in [on Christmas Eve], check how everybody is, probably review what we’ve done [on Saturday] if it’s not something that’s going to absolutely scare the life out of them.

“And we’ll prepare as we were always going to do.

“They’ll do what’s expected at home, they have to log it on a fitness app, and we can see whether they’ve done it.

“I’ve got no doubts about them as professionals, no doubt they’ll be doing it.

“This is about recovering, and about improving our level of performance on what we’ve seen.”

Paul Huntington missed out on Saturday with a niggle, Paul Simpson said (Image: Ben Holmes)

Simpson, meanwhile, revealed that veteran captain Paul Huntington was unable to make his comeback from injury on Saturday because of a “niggle” following his return to full training.

The Cumbrian defender is returning from a calf injury but did not make the squad against Cheltenham.

“Paul Huntington is going through that little bit of a phase where he’s getting little niggles coming – maybe it’s the stage of his career, I don’t know, but he’s got a little niggle after a really light training session on Friday,” said the manager.

“I’d spoken to him before training and said he wasn’t going to be involved in the game, starting or on the bench, but he’s got a little niggle. We’re hoping it will clear up but that’s doubtful [for Tuesday].”

Simpson can, though, call on Taylor Charters again after the Cumbrian midfielder made his first outing, from the bench, since September following a hamstring injury.

Taylor Charters came off the bench against Cheltenham (Image: Barbara Abbott)

With Owen Moxon also back from a hip injury, Simpson welcomes the availability of extra players for the busy festive period.

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“Mox is probably going to be ok [to start if required],” he said, [depending on] how he’s feeling after the game.

“Getting Jack Ellis and Taylor Charters back [is positive].

“We’ve got lads on the bench like Ryan Edmondson who’s coming on and showing he can run around…we’ve got Sean Maguire and Dan Butterworth who are wanting to be involved.

“We have got a few options that maybe we might need to rotate it a little bit.

“But whoever’s selected I think we all just have to hold our hands up and say we have to be better than we’ve shown in this game.”