Crawley have suffered another cruel blow to their hopes of beating the drop.

Midfielder Josh Simpson has been ruled out for a further four weeks after breaking down on his comeback from a hamstring injury.

Simpson has not featured since the 1-0 defeat at Yeovil in the FA Cup on November 1 with Reds failing to win any of their 12 games since his absence.

The former Peterborough midfielder has made only six appearances all season having previously limped out of the opening day win at Barnsley with an ankle injury.

Manager Dean Saunders had been hopeful the 27-year-old might be in contention for Saturday’s home game against Preston when Reds will bid to end a run of 15 games without a win.

But Simpson is now likely to miss at least the next five matches with Saunders admitting his long-running injury problems have baffled Crawley’s medical staff.

Saunders said: “We might have Dean Leacock back on Saturday but Josh is out for another three or four weeks.

“He’s had a setback and we can’t get to the bottom of the problem. It is the other leg this time so he is struggling.”

Reds are already without Conor Henderson (ankle) and Brian Jensen (thumb) for the visit of Preston while striker Matt Harrold is only fit enough for the bench due to an Achilles problem.