Mansfield Town may need loan keeper as Scott Shearer recovers from insect bite scare

The problem is believed to have been caused by a virus from an insect bite in the Capital One Cup game at Hillsborough and left Shearer very ill.

Thankfully, Shearer is out of hospital now and Brain Jensen has covered well for him between the posts.

“It’s been a bit of a worry to be honest with you,” said boss Murray. “It started at Sheffield Wednesday after the warm-up.

“He hadn’t twisted it, he hadn’t took a kick on it so it was a bit of a strange one. Then the day after the game he came in really ill and his ankle was just red raw.

“So we rushed him to hospital and they think he’s took a bite from something in Sheffield. That really flared up.

“He was in hospital all last week and they were going to operate, but he’s reacted to one of the anti-biotics. We have just got to wait for that to kick in and calm him down.

“We can’t put a time scale on it. I think Brian has been excellent since he’s come in. It is obviously a bit of a risk going with one goalkeeper so hopefully we will hear more over the next 72 hours on Scott and then we will make a decision.

“We just thought it was a twist Scott hadn’t picked up on and it had swollen because of that. When he came in the following day he was shaking and sweating so we knew that something wasn’t right. Then when you saw the infection growing up his leg, you thought we’d better get him to the doc’s. It was a bit worrying, but he on the mend now.

“He is out of hospital now and back home.”