Carlisle United's injured Georgie Kelly out for 12 weeks

A calf injury will put the frontman out for three months, manager Paul Simpson confirmed today.

Kelly limped off after coming on as substitute in last Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to MK Dons, and a scan has revealed the extent of the damage.

“We thought at the time it was a bad one, and he got scanned on Monday – it’s come back as what’s classed as a 3C tear in his gastroc[nemius] part of his calf,” Blues boss Paul Simpson told the News & Star.

“He's got to have a course of injections, but we're looking at a 12-week process which is horrendous news first and foremost for him, because his whole Carlisle United career has been so stop-start and we want him back available as soon as we can.”

Kelly has been plagued by injuries since he joined the Cumbrians from Rotherham United on February 1’s deadline day.

Simpson said the former Bohemians man was devastated when the latest problem happened at Stadium MK.

“He’s struggled with it,” United’s manager said.

“When he came off the pitch at MK, he nearly put his fist through the RECARO seats in the dugout.

Kelly suffered the injury soon after coming on as a substitute at MK Dons (Image: Richard Parkes)

“It’s the first time I’ve seen him like that. He’s quite a calm fella, he's a really intelligent, calm, meticulous bloke, but he lost it then and he was visibly upset by it because it's not pleasant for anybody.

“He feels as though he's letting everybody down, but there's just nothing you can do.

“Injuries are part and parcel of football. I saw on Tuesday night, the guy from Brighton who they've just paid £25 million for [Matt O’Reilly] and ten minutes into the game he gets smashed and he's having surgery, so it's such bad luck.

“It’s bad luck for Georgie and especially on the back of the other things that he's had as well.

“He just doesn't feel as if he's got started and showing what he's really capable of – and what he's capable of is what we brought him in for.”

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Kelly’s injuries have limited him to just ten Carlisle appearances since his winter arrival, leading some fans to ask whether United could have done more before signing the 27-year-old to flag up the potential for such a recurring run of problems.

Simpson said: “We looked into it all – we had a full medical examination and when he signed he'd been out for about six days with a slight calf strain, but according to what we were told and how Georgie was feeling on the bed-based clinical assessment, there was no issue.

“We did all the calf raise testing and it was all positive and he wanted to train on the Friday, but we said because he'd done two days of testing we should wait till the Saturday…and literally as he started to jog he felt something go and it was a differen area [of the calf], so I don't really know what more we could do.

“We are obviously being even more meticulous in terms of medicals that we're doing now. We're doing as much as we possibly can.

“We had a medical ten days ago of a player who we had to send back because we felt as if it was too much of a risk, but these things happen and there's not a lot you can do.

“We can only go off what we can physically test and I do think we are meticulous, but unfortunately we've been stung with what's gone on for Georgie and I've got to say he's stung by it as well.

“It's not just us, he's obviously really disappointed with how that's gone.”

In better news, Simpson can welcome back Terell Thomas, Cameron Harper and Dylan McGeouch to his squad to face Tranmere Rovers on Saturday.

Cameron Harper, pictured, is set to return to the squad after injury along with Dylan McGeouch and Terell Thomas (Image: Ben Holmes)

Thomas has had a short absence with a hamstring issue while Harper and McGeouch have been out with groin injuries since the latter days of pre-season.

“They’re all fine, they've all trained in the second half of the week, so there's no issues there,” Simpson said.

“It’s probably too early for Cameron and Dylan to go straight into it, but they're certainly back into the squad for the weekend which is pleasing to see.

“They're all important parts of the group. We've had some of the young lads who have been in the group as well because we've not been able to put an 18 out, so it's good to get senior players back.

“It’s been good experience for the young boys, but if we want to achieve anything we need to have a really strong group available.”