Baily Cargill and Stephen Quinn both limped off in the 1-1 draw at Grimsby Town and join Aaron Lewis, Hiram Boateng, Callum Johnson, James Gale and John-Joe O'Toole in the treatment room on top of long term injured trio Alfie Kilgour, Elliott Hewitt and Stephen McLaughlin.

Stags have three big games ahead this week with League Two visits by Stockport County and Bradford City sandwiching a Carabao Cup second round tie at Sheffield Wednesday on Tuesday with the transfer window closing next Friday just before the Bradford game.

“We are looking at youth rather than experience and the lad is at a Championship club,” said Clough of his target.

“We are negotiating with a club but things aren't quite right from our point of view.

“We will revisit it this week and see if we can tweak it a little bit so it's a bit fairer.

“It is difficult with loans and recalls in January and so on. But we will keep working on it.

“Saturday may be too early but the plan is to get one in. We are getting low on numbers.

“If Baily and Stephen Quinn don't make it for Saturday then we're into double figures. It is very difficult to deal with those sorts of numbers as we found last season.

“The good thing is we are playing well and we have three great games to look forward to next week.

“I wish we had a couple more bodies. It starts to bite. We have 10 outfield players training today. We have to do work but try to minimise the contact.”

Clough is hoping Cargill and Quinn can face Stockport.

“Both of them have an outside chance. Baily came off at half-time as he'd felt his hamstring and Stephen Quinn his knee. We will see how they go this week,” he said.

“James Gale, if all goes well, may be a couple of weeks.

“John-Joe has been out since that freak injury pre-season in the warm-up. I think he will be a bit longer but it's just good to see them out there running.

He added: “Aaron Lewis, Hiram Boateng and Callum Johnson will all be out for four to six weeks with varying muscle injuries.

“It is very difficult to establish a pattern. You always look for things if you get a few calves or Achilles or hamstrings. You can then look for something in training.

“But with them all being so varied it's very difficult to do that. Some are contact and some aren't. There is no rhyme or reason with them.”

Ollie Clarke was the only player named in the reserve side for the Central League opener at Derby County on Tuesday.

“Ollie needs some minutes having missed the majority of pre-season after picking up a calf after about a week or so. He has come on a couple of times but looks a bit rusty. But we have to be careful as we don't have many bodies for Saturday.

Clough is also hoping George Williams will soon be fully fit and available.

“George played the first half at Matlock and felt his thigh. He has only trained very briefly on Friday morning before the Grimsby game. He is down to train this week and we will see how he goes,” he said.

Mansfield Town chase loan defender as early injury list hits double figures