Head count for injury-hit Mansfield Town ahead of tough FA Cup tie at improving Accrington Stanley

Kyle Knoyle, Aaron Lewis and Jordan Bowery were all added to the club's growing injury list in Saturday's 3-0 defeat at leaders Birmingham City which, along with illness for Ryan Sweeney and Joe Gardner, took Stags' missing list to a full team of 11 players.

Rhys Oates, Max Dickov, Regan Hendry, Tyler Roberts, Luke Bolton and George Maris are already on the treatment table and boss Nigel Clough said: “I think Kyle will be out for Saturday and Aaron is another doubt.

“I would think Jordan Bowery will be out with a groin issue too.

“We are still waiting on news on two or three others.

“We will see how the others are with training this week to see if anyone can come back.

“We will see how players recover, but bear in mind we are playing Saturday/Tuesday/Saturday and then have the busy Christmas period.

“So it is going to be a balancing act on exactly who we risk on Saturday.”

He added: “Joe will do a bit of training later in the week but we will be very cautious with him and make sure he is right.

“He and Max Dickov have probably got the best chance of being available for the weekend.

“Ryan Sweeney will be okay, that cleared up over the weekend. It was just one of these bugs that are going around.

“I think it will be three or four out and two or three back.”

Rhys Oates has had a scan on a tight hamstring and Clough said: “Rhys' injury was not as serious as we first feared so we are just going to see how he is. He will do some light training this week and we will see how he goes.

“The others are all longer term – January for Regan Hendry, Tyler Roberts and Luke Bolton while George Maris will be even longer.

“So there won't be too many 11 v 11s going on in training.

“But the squad is as good as it can be to deal with it.”

Stags are particularly short on forwards right now and Clough said: “I don't think any squad in the country can deal with eight to 10 people out, especially their important players and, on Saturday, seven attacking players.

“The lady from Sky Sports said on Saturday we'd only had one shot on target. But when you have your creative and attacking players missing it's going to be difficult to create, though I thought we had more than one anyway and it was harsh.

“With what we had out there I don't think we could have done too much more on the day.”

FA Cup rules permit nine substitutes and Clough said: “We will have to count up and see if we can get one or two U18s on the bench on Saturday if there is a space.

“We are not sure if Jack Goodman is cup-tied – we have to check on that.”

Accrington, who for a long time were a bogey side for Mansfield, have begun to ease away from the League Two relegation fight after seven games unbeaten and Clough said: “I know they have kept a couple of clean sheets recently and they have a player we know very well in Faz Rawson, who did so well for us here.

“He is a lovely lad and one of the most honest centre halves in the league. It will be nice to catch up with him.

“But I think they will be looking at us and fancying their chances on Saturday.

“We have had great battles with them here and over the last 20 years with Burton in the Conference and below when John Coleman was bringing them up through the leagues into League One.

“It is one of those places. The pitch is lovely, but is a tight, difficult ground and there will be a few there hopefully.

“It will all come down to character and attitude and, hopefully in our favour, a bit of quality if we can get it out there on the pitch.

“I think it will be a tight game and we will be practicing our penalties.”

Despite their depleted numbers, Clough believes FA Cup replays should be reintroduced instead of settling ties on the day on penalties.

“I would still take a replay,” he said.

“I think they should be an integral part of the competition and have been throughout its history. I would still take those rather than penalties.”