Richard Brindley is by no means the only Colchester United player to have his season disrupted by injury.

But unlike some of his luckless team-mates who are still sidelined, the enterprising wing-back has the opportunity to help the U’s secure a play-off spot in the final weeks of the League Two campaign.

Brindley is in line to return to Colchester’s starting line-up for their vital home game with Luton Town tomorrow, having missed four matches with a calf problem before returning as a second-half substitute at Crewe Alexandra, last weekend.

The 23-year-old has been one of the U’s leading appearance makers this season – and having been in fine form when injury struck, the former Norwich City youngster is naturally eager to return to their starting line-up.

He said: “I’m fully confident that I’ll carry on where I left off and put in some good performances for the team.

“I’d picked up some really good form and it was disappointing to come out of the team but that’s football.

“It’s been a bit frustrating to have the calf issue that I had.

“It was a minor strain which was a little bit worse than we had thought.

“I’ve played quite a few games this season and perhaps it’s a little bit of fatigue.

“It was just a case of getting my calf right and 100 per cent.

“It’s amazing how much game fitness you can lose when you’ve missed just a couple of weeks.

“But I recover well and quickly and I’m feeling good and sharp - it’s good to be back.

“I have to do a lot of running – 60 or 70 yards at times - but I enjoy it and it’s something that I’m good at.

“It’s hard to play in every single game during the course of a season and if you look at some players, they get rested if they’ve played too many games.

“But unfortunately in our position, we’ve lost a lot of players already so I’ve had to dig deep and play quite a few games in quick succession.

“But I feel sharp and much stronger and really good going into the game.

“It’s been brilliant for me this season and I’ve been happy to have been playing week in, week out.

“I want to be putting in great performances but most importantly, where we want to be right now is chasing the play-offs and focusing on that.

“I’ve played the majority of the games but it’s how we finish the season that matters the most and finishing strongly.”

Colchester head into their game against Luton lying four points off the play-off positions, with eight games remaining.

They boast one of the best home records in League Two and John McGreal’s side will be aiming to rack up an impressive 12th league victory of the season at the Weston Homes Community Stadium when they entertain the Hatters.

“The home form has been brilliant and when you have a home record like ours, you’ll always stand a good chance,” said Brindley.

“We have a lot of big games coming up and we’re going into them fully confident.

“We’ve got a lot of young lads but there’s no doubt that we’ll go out and give it our best and embrace it.

“We have to enjoy it – there’s no other way to play it.

“The fans are fully backing us and confident that we’re going to put in a good show.

“Even though we’ve got injuries, I’m very confident with the squad that we have that we can still cause teams problems.

“We’ve worked hard to get into this position and it’s all to play for.

“It’s been a crazy season – I’ve never seen anything like it in terms of the injuries where we’ve been unfortunate.

“But we haven’t complained and in every game, the players have gone out and given it their all.

“We’ve bounced back and turned the negatives into positives and we’ll be looking to finish strongly.”

Meanwhile, Brindley says he is desperate to break his scoring duck in the final eight games of the season.

He is yet to find the net in the current campaign, despite providing a number of goal assists for his U’s team-mates.

“It’s about time I got myself a goal, with all of the running that I do and the assists,” added the former Chelmsford City man, who has two professional goals to his name.

“But I’m enjoying myself and I do that role and I do it well.

“I’m happy to assist if I don’t score – I want to create goals and I want to score them, too.”