COLCHESTER United head coach John McGreal says he would love to add to his squad in this month’s transfer window.

But the U’s boss remains philosophical in the club’s ongoing pursuit for new faces, ahead of next week’s deadline.

McGreal wants to add to his options, following loanee Aaron Collins’ departure back to parent club Wolves earlier this month.

The ankle injury sustained by striker Luke Norris in training last week has left Colchester’s attacking options a little lighter.

And the hamstring problem that forced off attacker Ryan Gondoh in the first half of the U’s under-23 win over Cardiff City has hardly helped matters.

McGreal said: “We’d love to get one in.

“But if we don’t, we know what we’ve got as we go forward.”

McGreal admitted last week that Colchester had missed out on potential transfer targets to clubs with ‘bigger clubs’ with ‘bigger wages and bigger budgets’.

That has forced the U’s to reassess their options but the U’s would ideally like to bring in at least one new face to boost their League Two promotion push before the window closes a week on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Colchester boss McGreal believes Mikael Mandron has brought ‘different elements’ to the side since he returned to their starting line-up.

Mandron has started each of the U’s last three games, in League Two.

McGreal said: “Mika’s been able to take on what we’ve been doing in training.

“He’s been able to implement it on a Saturday and him and (Sammie) Szmodics have dove-tailed each other quite well at the minute.

“When you do work as hard as Mika does, you do more often than not get your rewards.

“I’m a firm believer in that and since he’s come back into the team, he’s bringing different elements to a game that we possibly haven’t seen before.

“Perhaps that’s the competition with someone of the strength of Luke’s (Norris) character and goals sitting on the bench knowing he has to perform, maybe that’s a good indication of how Mika has been performing.”