Jabo Ibehre is likely to have to be patient in his bid to return to first-team action with Colchester United.

The experienced U's striker is yet to feature under new boss Tony Humes because of a troublesome knee injury picked up last month.

Ibehre had been training and playing up until Colchester's game with Peterborough United, at the end of last month.

But the injury got worse after that and has left him sidelined from first-team involvement.

It is now likely that Ibehre will be out for at least another week and he is unlikely to be available for the U's crunch game at Crewe Alexandra, this weekend.

U's head physio Tony Flynn said: "Jabo had a scan on his knee as soon as it looked like it was more of a problem than we thought and the news, while not disastrous, was not as good as we hoped.

"There was a bit of disruption in the tibia/fibula joint in the knee area and while it is keeping him out, it is getting better quite quickly."

For all of the latest Colchester United news, see the Daily Gazette.