Colchester United's wounded hero Aaron Skelton could be back in action inside a couple of weeks if the nasty looking injury he picked up during the 2-2 draw at Wycombe Wanderers proves not to be serious.

Skelton fell awkwardly after a second half arial challenge and was taken to Wycombe hospital with a suspected broken ankle.

X-rays revealed, however, only ligament damage although he said he was planning another scan on his shin today in case he has suffered a hairline fracture.

"My leg is black and blue and enormous at the moment and I'm on crutches," he said today, "But if it does prove to be only ligament damage I could be back in two weeks."

That will come as sweet music to the ears of U's boss Mick Wadsworth who is rapidly running out of central defenders following an injury to skipper Richard Wilkins and a three match ban for David Greene.

"We'll just have to get on with what we've got," said Wadsworth while paying tribute to the ice cool finishing of overtime penalty taker David Gregory and the never-say-die qualities of his team as a whole.

He said: "The spirit and workrate of the boys since I've been at the club is terrific and we got what we deserved from the sweetest move of the match - albeit nine minutes into injury time - and by playing right to the end.

"David proved once again that he has a wonderful nerve when it comes to taking important penalties and although we left it very late I was relieved to get something out of a second half that we didn't deserve.

"It was our poorest performance since I've been at the club and both Wycombe's goals came about because we were defensively sloppy.

"Having said that our display in the first 30 minutes was excellent."

Wadsworth also revealed that on-loan midfielder Warren Aspinall has been signed until the end of the season with a view to a permanent offer for next year.

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