Mansfield Town hoping to secure late striker deal as transfer deadline looms

Stags were given a huge boost over the freak chest muscle injury to last season's top scorer with the news Oates will be back sooner than expected after a successful operation last week.

But it would still be December before he returns and Clough is hoping to get something sorted before Saturday's derby game at Doncaster Rovers, where Stags are still looking for their first away point of the campaign.

"There's a good chance of one coming in for us,” said Clough.

“At the moment, we're just waiting on a few calls coming back to us.

“If we are going to do one, it might get done on Wednesday. Ideally, we don't like doing them last minute, although some clubs don't release their players until late on.

“Ideally we would just like one to cover for Rhys to get us through.

“if we don't get one you've seen James Gale is more than capable of stepping in, but we could probably do with someone a bit more established.

“There is no direct Rhys Oates replacement out there with his direct play, so we just need someone who can run around, cause a problem and nick us the odd goal.

“I think we have enquired for probably about 30 players in the last few weeks but for whatever reason, they have either gone to a higher level or financially it can't be done, we are still looking.

“We are down to about four or five now so we will keep chasing them."

Clough has been offered a striker as a loan swap deal for one of his other players but said: “We've had a think about it and we don't think it'll be of sufficient benefit to us.”

He added: “It'll be a quiet transfer deadline day as far as we're concerned.

“I don't see anybody leaving. We're very happy with the squad generally. Obviously, Oatesy's injury has been a setback and we don't want to lose anyone else.

“We have had a couple of enquiries from elsewhere for our players but we're not interested in letting anyone go."

Much-travelled veteran striker Theo Robinson has been training with the club as a favour to the player as Clough did with Dylan McGeouch in pre-season.

But if Stags don’t get a striker in by Thursday, the 33-year-old could yet end up getting a short term offer.

“It depends on how our search for a striker goes,” said Clough.

“Theo's a free agent so if we wanted to we could tie him up after the window anyway.

“It's not an urgent one in that regard as he's training with us at the moment as a favour. We'll continue to assess our options.”

Clough said of Oates: “He had an operation on Wednesday. Everything went very well. I’m delighted the surgeon helped us out and got him in as early as he did.

“It means that his recovery should be a week earlier.We’re looking to get him back on the pitch within three months which is a big boost compared to the four to six we were led to believe originally.”