Mansfield Town to gamble on one keeper for now

Shearer has missed the last three games due to a badly infected leg from what is believed to have been a virus contracted from an insect bite in the Capital One Cup game at Sheffield Wednesday.

But Brian Jensen has been superb in covering for Shearer, who is now recovering quickly, and will continue at York City on Saturday.

Murray had said he may bring in cover, but is now likely to gamble on having no keeper on the bench for a couple of games as Shearer is recovering so well.

“It’s a tricky one because we’ve got Brian and we are lucky that we’ve got some good kids coming through, though whether they are ready or not yet, that’s a big question,” said Murray.

“We spoke to Scott yesterday and he is a lot better and is probably not going to be as long as we expected.

“It is a bit of a gamble having no keeper on the bench, but to bring someone in and take the commitment of having them for a month when hopefully we will have Scott back before that, we are going to roll with it at the minute.

“Brian has been absolutely outstanding since he came in. First half on Saturday he had two saves to make from the set pieces. They were two very good set pieces and he pulled off two great saves which kept us in the game at that point. We have an excellent keeper in Brian so we are not overly worried.”

Who would Murray put in goal were Jensen to be injured?

“Me,” he smiled. “I am just going to stand in there and fill the goal.

“We have a couple of ideas. Obviously no one is going to go in there and be Bruce Grobbelaar. But we will deal with at the time.

“We have a couple of options if need be but, touch wood, if anything did happen, then we would have to dip into the loan market.

Has Murray briefed the players he has earmarked to go between the posts?

“Not in depth as you don’t want to put people’s minds on that,” he said. “ But it’s something you make people aware of in an emergency.”

There was good news too on skipper Nicky Hunt who was ill before and during Saturday’s clash with Oxford United, having to come off with dizziness and dehydration.

“There are no concerns over Hunty,” he said. “He’s come back in and trained very well yesterday. He is fine now, he had a bit of a virus over the weekend and Monday.”