Race against time for Stags winger MacDonald after op

The club today revealed that MacDonald required a small operation last week after the results of a scan on his knee.

Now it is a question of how quickly he can regain match sharpness.

“Alex had a little flicker of a cartilage breakway in his knee, so he had a minor operation last week to remove that,” said manager Steve Evans.

“I think the surgeon told the staff the operation took seven minutes from start to finish, so it shows you in reality how minor it was.

“But Alex will now be fighting to be ready for Crewe.

“It’s more about game time than anything else. He might not be ready for Crewe just based on game time.

“But he is injury-free now and working hard and should be back with the group from Monday next week.

“When you have that ability that he has, there lies the hope that he could be fit for Crewe.”

Also missing from the Stags’ squad against Forest on Saturday was central defender David Murfin. But Evans said there was nothing to worry about.

“He just wasn’t feeling well – as simple as that,” he explained.

“He reported in that he felt a little bit under the weather and he’s missed this morning with the same bug.

“But our medical team have spoken to him and he’s feeling much better. Sometimes you get a 24-48 hour bug and you have to protect yourself.”