The Irish midfielder suffered a dead leg during last weekend's win over Notts County and is rated as only 50-50 to make the trip to the New Meadow.

"I thought 'Daws' would be back in training today but he isn't so it's going to be a last minute job," said manager Billy Dearden.

Club physio Paul Madin added: "We will give Dawson a fitness test today and see if there is any reaction tomorrow. He has a dead leg on the outside of his thigh.

"There has been a massive improvement since the weekend but he is touch and go for Shrewsbury."

Sean McAllister and Danny Sleath stand by to replace him.

Stags will look to build on four points in their last two games on Saturday and Dearden added: "We go there confident without being over-confident.

"With Macclesfield at home next week, if we can get a result at Shrewsbury I will be more than satisfied.

"We will stick to the same style. With Mickey (Boulding) and Simon (Brown) up front we have no height but a lot of pace. So we need to play it on the ground more.

"You can't keep lumping long balls up for them though you do have to mix it up a bit."

Of the other injured players in Madin's care, Madin said giant striker John McAliskey (groin) was improving every day but the Macclesfield home game on Saturday week may come just too soon for him and the Tuesday trip to Hereford was more probable.

Defender Chris Wood (ankle) is making great improvements and could be back in a couple of weeks, but fellow defender Martin McIntosh (hamstring) will be another three weeks at least.

"Martin has a nasty inflammation in the hamstring tendon and we have given him an injection to try to calm it down," said Madin.

"If we can do that he can get down to some rehab work. We thought four to six weeks initially but it will be eight or more. You can never really tell with hamstrings."