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The Hatchetmen are currently in the midst of an injury crisis as the likes of Jordan Forysthe, Robbie Weir, Ross Clarke and Stewart Nixon are all out injured. Those setbacks has meant Caddell – who already has a young squad within his ranks – has had to call upon the club’s academy to beef his squad for recent games. That was evident on Saturday as teenagers Ryan Donnelly, Matthew Beattie, Ben Harrison, Joshua Ritchie and Aureli Karrabecaj were named as substitutes in the 3-2 loss at home to Glentoran. The Crues looked like picking up all three points via Fraser Bryden’s brace but Glentoran had other ideas as Ryan Cooney and David Fisher netted late goals to leave Caddell’s men empty-handed. With a busy schedule ahead for the Crues – Caddell gave a timeline as to when supporters can expect to see some of his big guns return to the park. "You're looking at the bench and you've got all the 16-year-olds on the bench...and that's where we are at the minute,” he said. "But, you see with Glentoran, they needed, obviously, a response and made two changes, another two changes, but unfortunately we're not in a position to do that at the minute. "It is what it is. I'm not going to list them all but the majority of my experience are missing at the minute. "I think we should have the majority of them back for December. "So, it's going to be, we're just going to have to navigate the next four weeks, five weeks. "Hopefully, get one or two back within that, but, for the majority of them, it'll be early December.” Caddell did however acknowledge that the youthful members of his side are currently playing without fear. "You get that enthusiasm and energy...so they won't shy away from the ball,” he added. "They won't stop doing what they're doing and, some weeks it costs you, as I said, with that wee bit of inexperience and that's fine. "They're going to learn so you're going to have to take some hard knocks along the way to get to where we're going.” Crusaders are away to in-form Dungannon Swifts in the Premiership this weekend.
