Manager Paul Cox has confirmed that he is in the hunt for a new goalkeeper after Alan Marriott was injured in a freak training ground accident on Wednesday.
The 34-year-old shot-stopper collided with striker Matt Green during a training session and was later taken to hospital with a suspected dislocated shoulder.
Marriott’s understudy, Shane Redmond, also sustained a separate injury in the same session and is now also a doubt for Saturday’s home clash with Hereford United.
Cox said: “It was pretty innocuous how Alan Marriott got injured.”
WARNING: This video contains an image of Alan Marriott's injured shoulder, which some viewers may find disturbing.
Jason Harrison (Mansfield 103.2) & John Lomas (Chad) are asking the questions
“Him and Greeny were coming for the same ball and they mildly collided. It looked pretty innocuous at first when he went down, but with the shape of his shoulder you knew there was something wrong straight away.
“He was taken to hospital and wanted to see a specialist once he got there. We’re probably looking at between a month and three months before he’ll be back.
“Believe it or not, Shane Redmond also took a nasty knock yesterday as well. He did something to his elbow and we’ll have to monitor him over the next few days.”
The injury crisis within our goalkeeping department completes a frustrating few days for the club.
On Tuesday night, the team had travelled to within a few miles of Macclesfield Town’s Moss Rose Stadium before they heard that the game against Steve King’s Silkmen had been postponed.
Cox cannot understand why the decision to call off the game wasn’t made sooner.
Our boss continued: “Everyone in and around that part of the country knew there wasn’t going to be any football played in the local area that night.”
“I was there at 4.00pm and the game shouldn’t have been played then, as the pitch was already an inch or two under water at that point.
“It has been one of those weeks, but the best thing we can do is put it behind us now.”
As a result of the Macclesfield game being postponed, striker Matt Green will now serve the third game of his three-match suspension when we lock horns with Hereford this weekend.
However, there is some brighter news to emerge from One Call Stadium today.
Our boss has confirmed that Andy Owens, Ben Hutchinson, Nick Wright and Andy Todd have all overcome recent injuries and are all back in contention for a place in the team.