The Stags winger went down on 38 minutes under a challenge from Marc Tierney and stayed motionless for 10 minutes before being taken to hospital on a stretcher.

But he was well enough to travel back home on the team coach after the scare.

Manager Billy Dearden said just after the final whistle: "We have just heard Matty is all right.

"But, with losing conciousness, I don't know when he will be allowed to play again.

"At first I though he had dislocated his shoulder, but apparantly he partially swallowed his tongue and was having trouble breathing when the medics went out there.

"But they gave him oxygen and he regained consciousness as he came off."

Stags then lost John Mullins to a red card in first half stoppage time, but hung on for a superb 0-0 draw, despite further injuries to Nathan Arnold and Dan Martin, and lifted themselves out of the relegation zone.

• Match report

"I am very proud of them," said Dearden. "We really showed our battling qualities today, though we have battled like that for a few weeks and not always got what we deserved.

"We are out the bottom two which was our first aim, our second aim has to be to push on further and get into that top half soon which we are very capable of.

"We knew what to expect from Shrewsbury and we dealt with all their crosses and long throws very well. In fact, I was a bit disappointed we didn't do better with the breakways we got in the last 15 minutes when they pushed forward as, if we had used the ball better, we might just have nicked a win.

"I know John Mullins had committed three fouls. But you can't tell me their players didn't foul ours today and yet they didn't get a single yellow card.

"Our supporters were brilliant today and could see what we were trying to do."