Another injury blow for Mansfield Town as Kellan Gordon faces lay-off

The 21-year-old summer signing has impressed at right wing back this season, but a scan has revealed his recent pain is coming from an injured disc.

As the struggling Stags prepared for Saturday's massive home game with Cheltenham Town, manager John Dempster said: “It's not good news on Kellan – he's got a serious back problem.

“He had a scan a couple of days ago and he will be out for at least six to eight weeks.

“There's a period of four weeks where he just has to rest up to make sure there is no further damage done – he' got a disc problem in his back

“It's important we emphasise how well Kellan has done. He's still a very, very young player who has come in from Derby County.

“We swam the ocean to get him because there was a number of teams that wanted to bring him into their football clubs. He's done great.”

Dempster must now look at options for Gordon's position on Saturday with CJ Hamilton and young James Clarke among them.

“Injuries are never nice for the individual or team, but we are fortunate to have strength in depth in our squad and there are no excuses. Whatever happens we need to be able to deal with it,” he said.

“We do have options, but I want to keep my cards close to my chest with Saturday in mind.

“Hayden White will be back soon hopefully. We hope he will be back training with the team at some point next week. That will be a massive plus.

“Clarkey did well the other night and whenever he's been called upon he's been brilliant.

“We have other options – CJ has played right wing back and done well at times.”

Skipper Krystian Pearce missed Tuesday's game at Port Vale with illness and is again a major doubt for Saturday.

“KP has had a serious illness, as in flu, and he has not been training at all this week,” said Dempster.

“We are hoping he'll be back in contention for Saturday.

“We will have to assess him when he's back in the club. The medical team are not overly confident, but KP will be doing everything he can to appear on Saturday.”

However, there was one bright note as Dempster added: “Danny Rose is back training today, which is a plus. He hasn't trained for a few weeks so hopefully he will come through training today okay.

“He will be in contention for a place in the squad and if he was named on the bench we'd be delighted. He would be a brilliant addition to the squad.”