Colchester United suffered an injury scare ahead of the new season after Andrew Bond limped out of their pre-season friendly win at Brentwood Town.

The midfielder hurt his knee in the seventh minute of the U’s 2-1 victory over their Ryman League division one north hosts and although he attempted to continue, was substituted soon after.

Bond’s preparations for last season were disrupted after he suffered a facial injury in a friendly match against Ipswich Town .

Twelve months on, the 26-year-old is hoping that lightning has not struck twice and that his latest injury is not too serious, with the new League One season less than three weeks away.

Colchester manager John Ward said: “We’re hopeful that Andy’s injury is nothing too serious and that it’ll settle down.

“I don’t know how it happened but it’s just around the knee joint.

“It’s one that you have to be careful of and we’ll know more in the next 48 hours or so.

“There was no point in Andy continuing and we didn’t want to run that risk.

“Fingers crossed, he’ll be OK.”

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