CHRIS Wilder says Oxford United’s run of injuries is simply bad luck.

The U’s have seen three key players ruled out for at least a month in the space of seven days.

And United’s boss has been desperately searching for a reason for it – but can’t find one.

Tom Craddock’s hamstring injury will keep him out of action for four weeks, and then at the weekend Alfie Potter broke an ankle ruling him out for the season.

And on Monday this week, Jon-Paul Pittman – arguably United’s in-form player at present – pulled a hamstring and will be sidelined for a month.

The injuries could not have come at a worse time with eight games in the next month.

“We said at the start of the season if you are going to be successful, you need a lot of things to go for you,” Wilder said.

“The players must play to their ability and then keep their form, you want the bounce of the ball now and again, and you need to steer clear of injuries.

“Unfortunately, we have not been able to do the last thing on that list.”

He explained: “Over the three years I have been here, I have kept a log of every training session we do, with what players and on what surface.

“I have looked right back through that to see if we are doing anything different, and we are not.

“For the first two years we were pretty injury-free, other than a few that we dealt with OK.

“But this season has been different completely and I have to say, I think we’ve been very unlucky.

“But we just have to deal with it.”

Pittman’s injury is a real hammer-blow with the former Wycombe man in top form over the past month.

It means that United have only four strikers – James Constable, Scott Rendell, Oli Johnson and Mehdi Kerrouche – fit.

“Being an explosive player like JP is, you open yourself up to these types of injury,” Wilder said.

“But there’s no denying that the timing is not good.

“I have never really wanted to change the squad around, but I have had to.

“We have got eight games in 30-odd days and we have got four fit strikers – and two of those only just arrived here.

“We usually play three strikers and so bringing in one means that you have one on the bench, and it doesn’t leave you many options.

“I’ll be honest, we could have done without the disruption though.”