TRAINING at Oxford United will be kept to a minimum until Thursday to allow the squad's struggling players to recover, according to Michael Appleton.

The head coach had doubts over five players 24 hours before Saturday's crunch clash with Hartlepool United.

In the end, several started despite a lack of fitness as the U's claimed a 2-0 win which kept them in the Sky Bet League Two automatic promotion places.

Appleton was impressed with the commitment, but thought the side's efforts would take their toll.

It means the U's boss plans to scale today's training session right back with Saturday's penultimate fixture of the season, away to Carlisle United, in mind.

He said: "There will be four or five of them who have got through the game on adrenalin.

"We will get absolutely nothing out of them until about Thursday.

"We will train on Tuesday, but it will be down to next to nothing.

"We’ll crack on and prepare for Carlisle in a proper way on Thursday."

One of those who played through the pain last weekend was top scorer Kemar Roofe.

The forward bagged his 26th goal of the campaign despite an injury which eventually forced him off just before the hour mark.

Appleton said: "Roofey was sore at half-time with his ankle and it was getting a bit puffy.

"You could see it through his sock, it was bigger than his other one."

More than 1,000 tickets have been sold to United fans for the 544-mile round trip to Cumbria this Saturday.

They will be travelling in the hope of celebrating promotion to League One, if results go their way.

Appleton would settle for just ensuring his side go into the final game of the season, at home to Wycombe Wanderers, with their fate still in their own hands.

But beating Hartlepool did guarantee even if results went against United this weekend, they would not be out of the race for the top three on May 7.

"That’s why winning the game was massive," Appleton said.

"We knew what happened elsewhere and no matter what happens next week it will always go down to the last game.

"But there’s a difference between that and it being in your hands.

"If we can make sure it’s in our own hands on the final day then I’ll be happy."