Mansfield Town stay cautious over James Perch return

The defender suffered a freak training ground accident that fractured his skull in September and ruled him out for the season.

But specialists told him the injury had healed and he made a surprise return last month, coming on as a substitute to huge cheers at home to Leyton Orient and away at Harrogate Town.

However, he has been absent from the squad for the last two games and manager Nigel Clough said: “He has just had a couple of knocks and things as you would expect when you've been out for quite a long time.

“But there is no rush in getting him back now. We have Faz Rawson and Keiran Wallace on the bench as two defenders and Lucas Akins can go across to play at right back as well.

“We just want to take our time and make sure he's okay.

“He is training a little bit. But even if got a routine headache it would be something we'd take a precaution against straight away, even though he might have had a couple of beers the night before if he's got a headache! We're being very cautious.”