Lawless faces anxious wait over foot injury

The 29-year-old has been limited to just four appearances this season after a hamstring problem, but picked up this latest injury during the recent 1-0 win over Northampton.

Boss John Still said: “Alex got over his hamstring injury, but we think he might have chipped a bone when he made that challenge (against Northampton) when he had to come off.

“We’re just following it up really to see where we are, and if it is we’ll see how we have to deal with that.

“No-one’s actually sure what they might say about that, but we should know something by the early part of next week.”

Striker Ross Lafayette is the only other player who won’t feature this weekend due to injury as Still continued: “He’s had his hernia operation and is just a bit tight which can happen.

“So he’s going to have a little bit of an injection, he’s trained a little bit and I’ll expect him to be back in training next week as it just looks a temporary blip, nothing much.”

Midfielder Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu is back in training, as is defender Paul Connolly, while Still was delighted a number of his squad got some much needed minutes in the 4-1 Final Third Development League win over Cambridge on Tuesday afternoon.

He added: “Pelly’s trained today and played the development game as well and I was very pleased with the game.

“There were some good performance and Shaun Whalley has been on absolute fire. I felt for him as I had to put him in the team when he wasn’t fit, but the fitness levels of people now are getting much, much better.”