Manager Paul Simpson plans to lay down the law with Jack Ellis after expressing his “annoyance” over the young Carlisle United defender’s latest injury.

The Cumbrian teenager missed the 5-2 win at Crawley Town after suffering another hamstring injury.

Simpson says he will speak to Ellis tomorrow after saying the 19-year-old should have informed him of the issue sooner.

The Staveley prospect is out for another four weeks, having only just returned from a hamstring problem.

“I’m annoyed with it, to be honest with you,” said Simpson.

“He’s going to have to learn how to understand his body a bit better because he hasn’t told us anything about his hamstring until Friday morning when he had to pull out of training.

“He trained Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, then on Friday dropped out of training after I’d named the team.

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“If he’d said something we probably wouldn’t be sitting in this position where we’ll be without him for four weeks now.

“He’s had a scan, and it’s a grade two strain. He has got to learn that we have to be told, that if he has issues he has to tell us.”

Ellis had only returned to action last weekend after a month and a half out through injury.

The promising home-grown player must learn from the current situation, Simpson added: “I’m really disappointed with how it’s been handled – not by the medical department, I’m disappointed with Jack, because he hasn’t told us the full story.

“He’s a young player, and this is a massive learning curve – he has to learn that he has to keep us informed.

“He’s going to have to learn from this, and he’s going to have to have a conversation with me on Monday about that.”

Ellis’s place was taken by Joel Senior, who marked his comeback with his first goal for the Blues in the 5-2 rout.

Simpson added of Ellis’s absence: “We haven’t got enough bodies to take chances like that.

“We have 16 outfield players fit, hopefully over the next week or two we might start to get others back into it, and we just have to make sure we keep everybody right over the next week.”

Simpson hopes to have Ben Barclay back soon.

Asked if the Stockport County loan defender could return next week, United’s boss said: “Maybe – I don’t know at the moment.

“I didn’t even ask how [the injured players] were because I was annoyed with that [Ellis] situation, so it was about focusing on the 18 players who travelled with us, making sure they were right for the game and went about it properly.

“Now we can address the other situation and come next weekend we’ll know what we’ve got.”