OK, who was it?

Time to own up because someone did it.

Someone somewhere walked under a ladder, spilled some salt and didn’t throw any over their shoulder, kicked the neighbour’s black cat, put their umbrella up indoors or walked down the street hitting a crack with every step.

Bad luck omens are the stuff of old wives’ tales but the U’s ill fortune is coming from somewhere and someone should put their hand up.

Poor Sammie Szmodics is the latest to suffer from the misfortune that continues to dog the U’s and their promotion push.

It looked a desperately forlorn sight as a player with so much energy and verve, who should be at the heart of the battle for a return to League One, exited the Gresty Road playing arena on a stretcher.

He has suffered the torment of two ankle surgeries in the last 12 months and the game at Crewe was just his second start after returning from the second of those.

When he came to the Thursday press briefing last week, you could see how excited he was to be back.

This is the type of player every dressing room needs.

Yet the U’s will be cruelly robbed of his services again and he’ll be seeing more of physio Tony Flynn than opponents on the pitch this side of the summer.

What makes it even tougher for the team, though, is that it just compounds their horrendously long injury list.

Just when you need strength within the squad, they are being denied by the loss of another key player.

Boss John McGreal has told us that he and his staff have gone through factors like training methods, conditioning and preparation with a fine tooth comb.

They’ve looked for things that could have prevented these injuries, but the simple truth is that sometimes it’s just bad luck.

The boggy pitch at Gresty Road could have contributed to Sammie’s injury – we’ll never know probably – but, like most of the injuries picked up this year, it’s another one that’s come in the hustle and bustle of a match.

Just pure bad luck.

As the American novelist Joseph Heller wrote in his 1984 book God Knows: “Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way.

“When it isn't, don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple bad luck.”

Now, can someone please clear up that mirror they’ve broken.