Carlisle United confirmed the signing of left-sided defender Ben Williams in the build-up to their opening game of the season.

The Blues announced the arrival of the former Barnsley and Cheltenham Town man 90 minutes before their League Two opener at Gillingham.

Williams joins the Cumbrians on a deal until January as their ninth summer signing after a pre-season injury to Cameron Harper, which manager Paul Simpson described as a "niggle".

With Harper and Taylor Charters (hamstring) both out of the first game of the campaign, Williams is in the mix for an immediate debut at Priestfield this afternoon.

Williams, 25, has been training with United this week.

He was with Cheltenham for the last two seasons, making 77 appearances and scoring three goals, before being released by the Robins after last term's League One relegation.

Previously he was with Barnsley, coming through their youth team to make 41 first-team appearances.

Williams, born in Tarleton near Preston, had academy spells with Blackburn Rovers and Morecambe before his switch to Barnsley.

He is a Wales international at Under-17, Under-19 and Under-21 level.

Simpson, speaking about the move on the club website, said: "We’ve hit a bit of a problem this week with Cameron Harper and Taylor Charters both suffering from persistent niggles they’ve had.

"They both dropped out of training on Tuesday so we were put in a position where we needed to make a signing. 

“I didn’t want to imbalance the team by having to play a right footer at left-back, so I’m delighted we’ve been able to get Ben into the building. 

“He’s a player with a lot of experience for a 25-year-old and he’s a player we all know about as a group of staff. I’m delighted he’s agreed to join us and we’re all looking forward to working with him over the next few months. 

“He’s been training with different clubs during pre-season, so he’s fit. He’s played games and been involved in training.

"He won’t be at maximum fitness but he’s at a level where we felt we could bring him in, and he’ll go straight into the team today. 

“Credit to him, because we’ve enquired about lots of players over recent weeks and I sometimes get the feeling they don’t actually want to play football. Ben jumped at the opportunity, he loved the thought of it and he wanted to come up and play.”