Chris Wilder has been given a larger playing budget to recruit cover to deal with ongoing injuries to key players.

The Oxford Mail reported yesterday Michael Duberry was ruled out for pre-season with a neck injury, but the U’s have question marks over several other players.

Owner and executive chairman Ian Lenagan has made extra funds available in response to problems with Liam Davis and Andy Whing.

He said: “Those injuries are to senior first-team players, Liam Davis and Andy Whing.

“It’s obvious they’re probably going to need operations to repair the problems that they’ve got and they’ll be out for maybe three months, so we’ve got to do something about that.

“They are problems we thought might be the case, where in the player’s case they thought they might have worn off over the summer, but they’ve not done – it’s just misfortune.

United want to bring in two players on loan to make up for the shortfall.

The club were criticised last season for using too many temporary signings, but Lenagan made it clear any new faces would be at the club until at least the end of the year.

He said: “What we’re not doing is bringing in people on loan for one or two months.

“I’ve set a standard that says we will not bring anyone in on less than six months, because to get the ethos, discipline and commitment from players you’ve got to be aware you’re there for a good while and six months is a good number for that.”