Crewe Alexandra's injured pair Calvin Zola and Mat Mitchel-King are expected to return to training on Thursday and that could give them an outside chance of being included for the weekend trip to Lincoln City.

Zola has been ruled out of the club's last two fixtures after aggravating his hamstring in the opening few minutes of the club's 2-0 defeat at Rochdale. The club's leading goalscorer is out of tomorrow night's clash with Chesterfield but is set to report to training on Thursday to step up his return.

The same applies to Mitchel-King who has missed the club's last five games after spraining his ankle against Darlington. The former Histon defender has overcome his ankle problem but has recently complained of some soreness in his lower back which has restricted his training.

Dario Gradi would welcome the return to two of his most senior players but will not risk them ahead of schedule if he doesn't need too.

Dario told the club's official web-site: "I expect to have Calvin and Mat back training with me on Thursday. They are both making progress but they have not trained with me yet.

"If they suffer no reaction then they will be considered for the weekend but I would only use them in an emergency. It will be nice to have them back with us, but we are okay for numbers at the moment."