Mansfield Town waiting on injured trio ahead of Saturday's tough trip to Salford City

Midfielders Ollie Clarke and Hiram Boateng are on the treatment table while striker Lucas Akins faces an operation this week.

Stags lost Clarke with an injury before the break in Saturday night's 2-1 home FA Cup defeat by Wrexham and Clough said: “Ollie felt his thigh after about 35 minutes and you can't take a chance with things like that. Normally if he got a kick you'd try to get through to half-time. But we will see how he is in the next few days.”

Stags are hoping for good news on Akins this week after he took a knock to his face in Tuesday night's defeat by Port Vale and had to come off before the break.

“We have lost Lucas for an unspecified period. He got a small fracture just below his eye and will need a small operation,” said Clough.

“He may just miss Saturday's game at Salford if all goes well.”

Boateng also missed out on Saturday. He had felt an injury overnight and then felt it again in the pre-match warm-up. So Stags decided not to risk him on the bench and he was replaced by youngster McKeal Abdullah.

Mansfield will continue their Bristol Street Motors Trophy group games at home to Everton U21s tomorrow night (Tuesday, 7pm) .

Stags had won their opener 3-2 at home to Doncaster Rovers last month.

But Stags now have a new date for the concluding group game away at Clough's former club Burton Albion. It was due to be played next Tuesday night but the Brewers now face an FA Cup replay against Port Vale that night so will be played the Tuesday after, 21st November (7pm).

Stags' hopes of playing their outstanding League Two game against Forest Green Rovers on FA Cup second round day on Saturday, 2nd December also now hang in the balance as Rovers drew at Scarborough Athletic and are now favourites to go through in the replay.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​