Lack of summer rest will continue to cause Mansfield Town players injury problems admits boss Nigel Clough

And boss Nigel Clough has warned that could continue for a while yet as players pay the price for lack of rest due to playing an extended season for the Wembley play-off final and then starting back for the new campaign earlier than ever due to the World Cup in Qatar.

“It has come round very quickly,” said Clough. “We didn't finish the season until the 28th May and we are starting again on 30th July.

“It feels very strange starting a new league season in July for a start. I have never experienced that before. It's always been the first week of August at least.

“It's not been ideal as we have picked up niggles throughout. It has been quite disruptive in terms of injury. I don't think there are many players, if any, that have done the complete shortened pre-season.

“So we will probably find over the next few months players will continue to pick up little injuries just because of the reduced amount of time they had to rest this summer.”

He added: “We don't want to lose players through injury and already it's been disruptive in pre-season.

“It will probably take us a month or two to really get up to speed because of the whole set of circumstances.

“So I think the new five subs rule is absolutely vital for us this season to be able to change half the outfield at any point - provided we've got enough players.”