Carlisle United: Georgie Kelly and Gabe Breeze's situations will be on Paul Simpson's mind | OneFootball

Simpson's Blues still have a couple of headaches to deal with despite their encouraging summer so far.

Despite the opening weeks of pre-season going fairly smoothly for Carlisle United, the situations surrounding Georgie Kelly and Gabe Breeze may be lurking in the back of Paul Simpson's mind.

The Cumbrians have had an active summer so far. Seven new faces have been brought into the club, two have left, and there have been additions to the coaching staff too.

The latest addition to the squad - right-back Archie Davies - made his first appearance in a Carlisle shirt on Tuesday night in the club's second pre-season friendly of the season; a 3-0 win against Kendal Town.

All the new players looked to have settled in well, and the promotion goal has been echoed by all that have spoken over the pre-season period.

It's been hard to find fault with what United have done since their relegation to League Two, but there are some things that will be weighing on the manager, as they need to be sorted/dealt with sooner rather than later.

Georgie Kelly's fitness

When the Carlisle squad returned for the first few days of pre-season training, it was nice to see the likes of Callum Guy, who has been out injured since December, back on the grass, although he won't be fully fit in time for the first game of the season, on the 10th of August.

One player who was spotted to be missing from all the pictures that came from the opening sessions was January signing Georgie Kelly.

After joining in the winter, he missed a large chunk of the remainder of the season due to injury. These problems have plagued him again, as Simpson revealed that, before pre-season had even started, Kelly had picked up a problem in his calf.

"Depending how he goes over the next few weeks, I would imagine he'll probably join full training in St Andrews (15th of July)," said the boss, via the News & Star.

The Irish forward, who impressed in the games that he did play at the end of the 2023/24 campaign, has been doing some individual fitness work.

Simpson probably planned for him to play a big role in the upcoming season, and the worry over his health has surely been intensified due to this niggle that developed before the first game has even kicked off.

If he is out, Carlisle have more than capable options in Charlie Wyke and Luke Armstrong. But they won't want to find themselves in the position they did last term where they had no striker options on the bench for long periods. Kelly's availability will be key to making sure that doesn't happen.

Loan move for Gabe Breeze

Simpson said that he wanted to bring in a shot-stopper that fit somewhere between January signing Harry Lewis and academy graduate Gabe Breeze. Jude Smith, Carlisle's second signing of the summer who, like Davies, debuted in a United strip for the first time against Kendal, looks to be that player.

Now, with three members of the Brunton Park keeper's union, there's room for one of them to leave, at least temporarily.

The signs from Breeze's brief spell as the number one, just before and after the new year came in, were encouraging, especially since that was his first, and only, taste of first team football.

He and Smith are not too far apart in age - 20 and 21, respectively - but, if one of them is going to be the club's number one in the future, it looks more likely to be the Cumbrian than the Scot. Therefore, they'll want him playing and continuing to develop.

Simpson won't want him sitting around doing little other than training, again, so they will need to try and find him a temporary home if they can.