Joshua Kayode will miss “a little bit of football”, Chris Beech admitted, after revealing the injured Carlisle United loan striker had returned to his parent club Rotherham for treatment.

Kayode missed Saturday’s draw with Swindon with a leg problem.

Beech would not say how long the young frontman is likely to be on the sidelines but said Kayode had a scan last week.

The Blues boss said: “We’ll keep [the timescale] private for now.

“He’s a young boy and they heal quickly.

“He’s gone back to Rotherham to help with that but we want him back up here as quickly as possible.

“I spoke to him on Friday and he’s gone to see his mam in Manchester for a little bit, which is good.

“I don’t want to give too much away about timescales.”

Beech said Kayode had played through the problem in the 2-2 draw at Mansfield, which saw the striker score United’s late equaliser, his second in successive games.

United’s head coach said: “He had a problem in the game, and he’s a young boy who doesn’t know his body as well as an older player does.

“He said at half-time that he could feel something in the back of his leg so I looked the lad in the eye and I said, ‘Josh, are you coming off? Do you want to come off?’ He said, ‘No, I’m ok gaffer, it’s just tight’.

“He tried to stop a full back playing a ball down the line and it tightened up a little bit.

“I said, ‘No risks, you’re coming off’, but he insisted he wanted to stay on.

“I’m glad he did because he scored that great goal. He didn’t look in any way that he was holding back in that second half at Mansfield – he was after everything.

“In the early part of last week his leg didn’t respond well so he went for a scan and he might miss a little bit of football.”

United will also assess Harry McKirdy ahead of Tuesday’s visit of Cheltenham after he limped off shortly before half-time against Swindon.

The forward had been on the receiving end of some strong challenges from Robins midfielder Anthony Grant.

Beech did not criticise Grant but insisted ref Graham Salisbury could have offered McKirdy more “protection”.

He said: “He just got a bad tackle. Granty knows what he’s doing and it’s something I used to do.

“It’s nothing bad, it’s in the laws of the game, but he’s slightly lifted his leg and he’s caught [Harry] just above his ankle-high shin pads – so maybe he needs bigger shin pads and it’s his own fault for not having bigger ones.

“But the ref’s got to protect players like that.

“I had to try to give him the chance to play on and I know the supporters were like, ‘Get him off,’ but it was so close to half-time and I was trying to get there to give him 15 minutes so we could see where we were with him.

“It’s almost like a boxer between rounds where you want to see if he can go again.

“But there was just one incident that frightened me before half-time where he couldn’t get back and Swindon crossed it. I thought, I can’t take the risk, even though half-time was so close.”

Beech, meanwhile, expects Stefan Scougall to return to action this week after he missed out on Saturday.

The United head coach said: “He was close to being available. He got a knee in the back of his leg in the reserve game and had to come off with a dead leg.

“He was running on Friday, but we’ve had players joining back in training then dropping back out in the past, so it’s important that when they join back in they are then moving forwards and are available.

“I expect him to be training on Monday.”