Colchester United to assess fitness of duo

The 36-year-old was forced off in the first half of the U's 2-2 draw with Crawley Town due to injury.

Skuse, who has made 15 appearances for Colchester so far this season, received treatment for the knock and initially continued, before being replaced by Marley Marshall Miranda in the 38th minute.

The former Ipswich Town midfielder was handed an ice pack after coming off and the U's are monitoring his fitness, ahead of their home game with Boro at the JobServe Community Stadium on Saturday.

Colchester head coach Matt Bloomfield said: “We were gutted when Skusey had to come off, because he’s a majestic footballer and a great guy.

“We want to use him as much as we can but we’ve got to respect the fact that he had a little bit of a knock.

“It was just something he reported, five minutes before he came off.

“We were going to take him off, Marley (Marshall Miranda) was all ready and then Skusey wanted to give it another go.

“He’s a real big character in the dressing room and a real big character on the football pitch.

“He’s so calm in possession and I think he’s got so much more to give, even in his mid-thirties.

“The way he plays the game, I think he’s got loads more to give and I’m really glad that we’ve got him here."

Colchester are also hoping that left-back Ryan Clampin will be available for the Stevenage game.

The 23-year-old, who missed the majority of last season with a serious knee injury, had to go off with cramp in the second half against Crawley, after being recalled to the U's starting line-up for the League Two clash.

“Clamps got a bit of cramp," added Bloomfield.

“He was ill last week, so that’s why he didn’t travel to Newport at the weekend.

“He trained on Saturday morning with the under-21s, had Sunday off and then trained with us again on Monday.

“Al-Amin (Kazeem) has been brilliant but you need to give young boys a rest when you can.

“It’s a relentless industry that we’re in and I just wanted to give Al-Amin and Marley a little breather."