30-year-old United midfielder Paul Murray will undergo an exploratory operation on a troublesome knee injury tomorrow evening after further advice from a specialist in Stoke.

Murray, who has played 14 games for Carlisle this season, has been found to be suffering from tendinopathy of his left biceps femoris tendon (hamstring) and will have the injured area scraped, stripped and cleaned during a keyhole procedure at the Newcastle-under-Lyme hospital.

Club Physio Dolly told us: "The injured area is something that you can feel under the skin so, hopefully, the surgeon will be able to go in there and sort it out. It's too early for us to be definite on recovery periods, so we'll look at that once the operation has been done and he is back with us."