Midfield terrier Alex MacDonald weeks away from Mansfield Town return

MacDonald made his playing comeback with 45 minutes of reserves football on Tuesday with no setback.

Delighted manager David Flitcroft said: “Macca played his first 45 minutes at Rotherham and, luckily, it was on their main pitch so he got that feeling again of being in a stadium which was good for him.

“It’s been five and a half months now. It’s been a long time for Macc and it was a time issue.

“He was always going to get right but it was about giving him more time.

“Macca is the most impatient footballer I have met, in a good way. He reminds me of me a lot.

“Coming into work for training, it’s the best time of your life. It’s just amazing and something I miss not being able to do every day. Macca is similar and it has hurt him being out.

“He’s now back with the lads and has that bounce. Now we’ve got to get him football fit and condition him to get him football ready so, when he comes back, we have no recurrence or repercussion.”

He added: “It’s got to be a really steady feed back and integration into training and games.

“We are targeting the next two reserve games we’ve got and we might even try to get one of them at the One Call.

“We will just gear his individual and team programme around that now. He will be a important player in the last stages of the season.”