Blues boss Chris Beech expects Joshua Kayode to make a quick return after revealing the seemingly innocuous injury which ruled him out of Carlisle United’s opening game.

The loan striker suffered a training-ground knee injury as the Blues built up to their EFL Trophy game against Fleetwood.

It cost United another attacking player at a time Brennan Dickenson and Omari Patrick are also still out.

Beech said: “On Monday in training we did a circle and the ball hit JJ [Kayode] on his foot, and it opened up his knee a little bit.

“He felt uncomfortable after that, so he couldn’t play.

“JJ is a big part of the squad, and we’re hopefully he’ll only be out for a couple of days.

“If it was a more prominent fixture he might have suggested that he could play, but he pulled out.”

Beech is awaiting full clarity on Dickenson’s hamstring injury, meanwhile, but said the former Exeter man’s injury was not short-term.

“He is going to be a little bit longer, which is unfortunate; he’s all about power and pace so he’ll be a big miss, as is anybody who can’t play."

The United boss hopes other sidelined players will return soon.

He said: “Omari should be back soon. He trained [on Tuesday] but I just thought the game was too soon for him.

“We’ll get some good training sessions into him – even though that was what we did last time – so we want to get plenty of football into him on the training ground so his body is ready.

“Jack Armer is back running and training, so that’s more good news, and Josh Dixon has got his last test on his hamstring strength, which supports the knee, and he’s getting really close to being back with us.

“With the players missing [last night] it is some attacking pace and prowess which is missing and which I like playing with.”

United are awaiting results from keeper Magnus Norman’s visit to a specialist over his knee injury.

Beech added of the impact of injuries on last night’s squad: “You make a plan when you get out of bed but by the time you get to the game you’ve had to adapt it and try and make it work.

“We couldn’t quite put it together to get a positive result, but we definitely got it in terms of energy and effort.

“The players who are out are all big misses but that’s why we have a squad. That’s why we need that competitive edge in training, so when these things happen the changes mean we can keep moving forward.”

One player who will be able to return on Saturday in the Carabao Cup tie at Oldham is midfielder Callum Guy, who sat out the Fleetwood game due to a suspension incurred from previous EFL Trophy outings with previous Blackpool.

Beech also took off midfielder Danny Devine at half-time, replacing him with Dean Furman.

The United boss said: “Danny’s fine, he just said he felt a bit of a yard off it, and, because [Fleetwood’s] Paul Coutts and Glenn Whelan in the first half were getting a stronghold in the arm-wrestle of the game, I just went man for man in terms of Dean coming on marking Callum Camps, and Jon Mellish and Joe Riley coming inside so they could deal with Coutts and Whelan.

“Obviously Whelan came off, and I felt we started to get even stronger at the point when they scored their second goal, but that happens a lot in football.”