Key injured trio all back in Mansfield Town squad at last after a nightmare 2024

Elliott Hewitt, Alfie Kilgour and Rhys Oates have all had a tough 2024, but Hewitt is back with bang, Kilgour produced a dominant 90 minutes on Saturday at Stevenage and Clough was happy to have Oates back on his bench on Saturday since his New Year's Day injury.

“Having Rhys back in the squad on Saturday was one of the positives, but one of the negatives was that we couldn't get him on the pitch,” said Clough.

“The plan was to get him on for 10-15 minutes.

“It was just the way the subs went that we couldn't manage it.

“Even if we'd brought him onto the pitch on 85 minutes, our last opportunity within normal time when George Maris came on, if it had gone to extra-time he would have been facing 40 minutes of game time.

“We thought that was too long for him.

“But it was absolutely brilliant to have him back involved again.

“When he did his knee we said how can you replace him as you look across Leagues One and Two and you don't see too many players of that ilk who can have the impact he can give, whether starting a game or coming off the bench.”

Clough is in no rush to be starting Oates or pushing him too far too soon.

“Rhys has plenty of time now. It's just over 11 months since he did his knee at Stockport,” he said.

“He has got to be patient. We will get him some game time with the reserves or something like that and then he will be involved.

“He just needs to get his confidence back now. His knee should be strong enough as he has passed all his tests.

“He has been so unlucky the last few seasons, doing his pectoral muscle as well. Hopefully he can now stay injury-free.

“The first step is taking a few whacks in training and giving a few, which he certainly does.

“With all three of them out long term at the same time it has helped, having someone in the gym going through the same sort of thing and the emotions and lows.

“It's mental strength that gets you through. It's a long time to lose out of your career. If you have a 10-15 year career to miss a year or two through injury, which he has, is a long time.”

On Kilgour's display, he said: “I thought Alfie did extremely well. “He is another just building back up.

“They are impatient to get back on the pitch and play, but we have everyone at different levels at the moment.

“Alfie has been out 15-16 months and it's about building him up now for the second half of the season, like Rhys. But I thought he showed some of the old Alfie qualities on Saturday with his aggression and clearances, though I didn't think his distribution was too good at times.

“That will improve. But all his fighting, battling qualities were there.”