The U’s were without influential pair Jack Payne and Harry Anderson for their goalless draw, adding to an already sizeable list of absentees.

Cowley believes he could virtually name an entire starting XI from the players who were either unavailable or not yet fully ready for action.

“You can pretty much pick a team that wasn’t here today,” said Cowley.

“You’d have Tom Smith in goal, Kane Vincent-Young has only trained yesterday [Friday] for the first time with the team, Sean Raggett, Jake Leake, Ben Perry is just coming back, Teddy Bishop, Harry Anderson, Jack Payne, Kylian Kouassi.

“I’ve got a pretty good team there. I think that team could probably do quite well, in League Two.

“But they’re the cards we’ve been dealt, so when you’re dealt a bad set of cards, you have to stay really determined and keep fighting and keep going and try to see the positives in what the group did today.”

Missing out - Jack Payne was forced to sit out Colchester United's 0-0 draw with Exeter City due to an ankle injury (Image: Richard Blaxall)

Payne missed the Exeter stalemate after suffering an ankle injury during Colchester’s previous game against Newport County.

Cowley revealed the midfielder sustained the problem following a heavy first-half challenge but battled on despite the injury.

“Jack opened his ankle in that tackle in the first half against Newport, right in front of the dugouts,” said the U’s head coach.

“He came out the wrong side of a pretty big block tackle.

“Credit to Jack. He might only be five foot four but jees, has that boy got a big heart.

“He played on with it but once he took his boot off at the end of the game, it had already swollen.”

There appears to be some encouragement over Payne's condition, with Colchester not currently believing the injury has caused ligament damage.

The Exeter fixture simply arrived too soon for him, despite his efforts to make himself available.

“He did everything he could do get fit this week to try to get the swelling down and we don’t think at this point that there’s any ligament damage but the game just came around too quickly,” added Cowley.

“He’ll continue to work over the weekend to try to get that better.”

There is less immediate optimism regarding Anderson, however, with Cowley conceding: “Harry’s going to be out for a little while, I think.”

Gym work - Colchester United defender Sean Raggett is working hard to return (Image: Richard Blaxall)

Experienced defender Sean Raggett is also moving closer to contention after returning to training on Friday, although he is not yet ready to play.

“Sean trained [on Friday] but has still got some work to do in the gym, before he can be available,” said Cowley.

The mounting injury list has left Cowley with limited options, but the U’s head coach is determined that his side will not use their absentees as an excuse.

“Unfortunately, when you get injuries they can come together,” he said.

“I don’t suppose we’re the only team that has felt that but it can happen that way.

“You get a choice; you can either be the victim in this moment or you can be the fighter and we’re going to try to fight on and do our very best, in the circumstances we have.”