Ross Embleton feels as though Leyton Orient are missing the influence of players like Jobi McAnuff on the pitch.

The club captain is yet to feature this season while he recovers from injury and has instead been focussing on his interim player-coach role given to him in the summer.

While Embleton has enjoyed having the midfielder beside him and Danny Webb on the sideline, the boss thinks that the side could do with his character back on the pitch.

Speaking after last night’s defeat to Crewe Alexandra, Embleton said: “I love having him standing next to me and his input has been fantastic but we miss that sort of character out there at the moment.

“There’s a number of players that have performed admirably. Even tonight, which was a real disappointment, I think there’s some real positives that have come out of our performance. Like I said, it’s not good enough that we haven’t got a point and certainly not won the game but I think some of those big moments can be managed by having more big characters like Jobi out on the pitch and certainly we do miss him.”

Disappointingly though, there is still no clear idea of when McAnuff could return to the field, although Embleton insists he is being pushed all the way to get back as soon as possible.

He said: “How long it’s going to take is, again, so frustrating, because we don’t quite know. We have to keep pushing Jobi to see how far he can get before he’s ready to step back in.”