Carlisle United midfielder Josh Dixon has been sidelined by a knee cartilage injury, boss Chris Beech confirmed today.

The young Cumbrian has seen a specialist and may require a minor operation.

Beech, though, stressed that the problem was not related to the more serious knee injuries from which Dixon has recovered in previous seasons.

And the United boss hopes the 20-year-old will only be out for a short spell.

Speaking at his press conference today, Beech told the News & Star: “Josh ain’t 100pc at the moment. He’s had a knock on his knee and I think he’s seen a specialist.

“It’s nothing to do with the original problems he’s had. He feels quite confident and assured about that.

“He might need some intervention, but I don’t think it’s of any significance. We’ll see how that goes.”

Asked if Dixon would be out for a period of weeks, Beech said: “[Hopefully] not too many.

“I think it’s a cartilage problem, and I’ve heard of players recovering within seven to nine days of having an operation.

“It’s all dependent on the specialist and how Josh is. Hopefully everything will be good.”

Home-grown prospect Dixon fought back from successive cruciate knee ligament injuries during his youth and early professional days with the Blues.

The Carlisle-born player made his professional debut last season and has made two sub appearances for the first team this campaign.

Beech, meanwhile, gave an update on Danny Devine’s progress.

The versatile midfielder has missed out on recent squads having only just returned from a pre-season injury.

Beech has said United are managing him carefully but that the ex-Bradford man should return to availability soon.

“Danny Devine has been over-protected – he’s done twice as much as you normally would in that part of his rehab, so he should be training with us very soon,” said Beech.

“That’s good news because he can add to midfield and he can put pressure on full-backs.

“He wants to be knocking on the door to get into the team and it’ll be great to see him training with us again.

“I tried to put outside pressure on to get him playing against Fleetwood [in Tuesday’s reserve game], but it was probably the wise choice not to let him do that.

“Sometimes these things work, or they don’t; we don’t know until he gets back with us again.”

Tuesday’s Central League Cup game, which United won 2-1 thanks to goals from Brad Young and Manny Mampala, also saw Arsenal loan defender Jonathan Dinzeyi make his first Blues appearance.

Beech gave his assessment of the young centre-half’s display.

He said: “There are powerful aspects to his game, and he was blocking and tackling well.

“I know he’s had a shock to the system in terms of pace of training and recovery, so that will do him the world of good to have played for us and played in that, and won the game.

“That’s a start from him and we’ll see how things transpire as we move forward.”