Pre-season brings with it strains and niggles as players are pushed to the limits, and beyond, and manager Chris Beech confirmed this morning that striker Omari Patrick is nearing his first appearance of the summer as he works his way back from a hamstring injury.
“Omari has been fit for a few days,” he said. “In the early part of getting back into training, once we were allowed contact, we did a lot of small-sided games rather than running around a track or whatever.
“Him and Aaron [Hayden] had a bit of a testosterone moment when they went sprinting down the wing. Aaron decided he didn’t want to let Omari do that, but Omari tried to go back on the inside of him and they ended up going full tilt and sprinting 25 metres.
“Omari got a little nick in his hamstring. He could have played on Tuesday night but we felt it was better to get a full week of training into him with the type of player he is.
“I was always ok because I could never run faster than a wheelbarrow, but Omari needs some time to make sure he’s right.”
Also side lined is new arrival Jack Armer, who also missed out on Tuesday night.
“It’s not great news with Jack,” he commented. “He took a bad dead leg during an 11v11 game in training and it was that bad, it actually split a muscle.
“He had a scan, thinking it was just a dead leg, but he was getting back to the running stage and it wasn’t going away. It could be two to three weeks, we’ll have to wait and see.”
And he also confirmed that these lads are finding it tough to have to watch from the dugout, with a great team spirit developing around the squad.
“I’m really pleased, the group and the energy is good and it’s together, which is all I ever ask for,” he told us. “It’s part of how I tried to recruit, obviously massively governed by finance.
“We all know we aren’t going to be the biggest spending club, so you’ve got to make sure that the geographics of players are correct and that they can enjoy their experiences as they represent the Carlisle community.
“I don’t want to be in a position where you’ve got players at the club who feel like they’re doing us a favour and who don’t actually want to be here. I don’t want that.
“I think that’s been vital in terms of recruitment and the players who have come in are all buying into that.”