Frankie Kent could play a part in Colchester United’s latest pre-season friendly at Needham Market tonight.

The U’s travel to play their newly-promoted Ryman Premier opponents at Bloomfields, as they continue to build up their match sharpness and fitness levels ahead of the new League Two season.

Kent missed Colchester’s opening friendly at Maldon and Tiptree last weekend with a slight knee injury, picked up in the opening days of pre-season.

But the young defender could play a part tonight, as first-team boss John McGreal continues to assess his squad ahead of the new campaign.

Goalkeeper Sam Walker, who missed almost the whole of last season due to a knee injury, is also in the U's squad.

Colchester are likely to once again field two teams with each player getting 45 minutes under their belt against Needham, prior to heading to Cheshire tomorrow for their pre-season training camp.

McGreal said: “We’ll keep giving them 45 minutes which is ideal, just before we go away up north and take in another game then.

“We know Mark (Morsley) over at Needham and we want to bring our club into the community and keep bringing these boys in.

“It’s fallen into place over the last week we’ve got these extra couple of games that we needed really, for the amount of bodies that we’ve got.

“We wanted seven pre-season games so that we could get the minutes under the belt but also have a little look at different systems of play.

“We’ve all got our philosophy that we’re going to adhere to and our identity but now it’s just about what our best eleven is, as we build up to the Hartlepool game.”