Mansfield Town keeper Christy Pym looks set to miss Bristol Rovers visit on Saturday

But boss Nigel Clough has no worries about starting veteran Scott Flinders if needed.

Flinders replaced the injured Pym during the first half of last week's unlucky 1-0 defeat at Wrexham and could start against Bristol Rovers on Saturday – Stags' first home game in almost a month – before they start three successive away games at League One leaders Wycombe Wanderers on Tuesday night.

“Christy is not training at the moment,” said Clough.

“Its not too bad but he is still quite sore, so we will have to see how he is for Saturday.

“With all those games coming up he is doubtful. But we have no problem with putting in Scott Flinders for a game or two.”

On Pym's injury, he said: “It turned out it was his shoulder in the end.

“We had a mix-up with comms.

“When he sat down we initially thought it was his head.

“Having substituted him we knew there would be concussion protocol, but we also knew we had no game for two weeks, so he would be okay for that point of view.

“George Maris was just outside the 18 at Wrexham and Stephen McLaughlin had stiffness in his back and hamstrings, but they both trained on Monday and should be okay.

“We are hoping to have a fully fit squad.”

Stags were also boosted by the return to training of striker Rhys Oates this week as he recovers from his New Year's Day injury.

“Rhys actually joined in full contact training on Monday morning which was a good milestone for him,” said Clough.

“It was great just to see him out there.

“He hit all his targets this time and had a week of non-contact training with the U21s last week and all the lads are pleased to see him back.

“He has been out a long time so we will take our time with him as we are concerned about possible secondary knocks now.

“He has to be patient now and use the next few weeks to get up to speed.

“It's a shame we are not still in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy but we can organise some reserve games for him still. We can't wait to get him involved again.”

It has been a long wait for Stags to get back to playing at the One Call Stadium and Clough said: “We have had one league game in that space of time so we can't wait to get playing again – especially after the Wrexham game last week.

“We want to continue in the same vein as that performance.

“It was an unbelievably disappointing result and frustrating as it was probably one of our best performances of the season.

“I want all that frustration ready for 3pm on Saturday.

“It's not just Saturday either. I think we worked out we have something like 11 games in 44 games which takes us through to Stockport on 4th January.

“So it is a very intense period and a very important period.

“Wycombe, Stevenage and Bolton away in the space of eight days will be a tough and a defining period in some ways.

“We want to get some points on the board before we go into that hectic Christmas period.

“We have 30 points and a place in the FA Cup Third Round at stake – it's an important period.”

He added: “With so many games coming up there will be times when players are in the team and then on the bench or not in the squad at all.

“We will be using the whole squad over those 11 games without a doubt, especially over the Christmas period when we have five very important games.

“I don't think there will be too many playing all five.”

On mid-table Rovers, he said: “Bristol Rovers have been a bit up and down but have a very experienced manager (Matt Taylor) for this level.

“They have one player in particular, Chris Martin, who we had at Derby for a number of years, who is a very competent centre forward, who gets hold of the ball and will be very dangerous.”

Monday's night's heavy snowfall forced Clough into changing training plans on Tuesday.

“It's unfortunate but there is nothing we can do about it,” he said.

“The lads will just do some gym work today and hopefully we will get back onto some sort of surface soon.

“If not we will find an indoor facility.

“It's not ideal when the lads had a few days off last week to rest and we wanted to get back in the swing of things with a good week's hard work.

“But when four or five inches of snow falls there's nothing you can do.

“We had a good session on Monday.

“We do believe Saturday's game will go ahead I don't think there will be any more snow and we have frost covers on the pitch which should take care of things.

“Saturday daytime it is warming up considerably, so we should be fine.”