David Artell remains optimistic that influential midfielder Tom Lowery will be fit and available for the weekend.

Tom Lowery missed Saturday’s 1-0 defeat at Grimsby Town due to a neck injury sustained in training on Friday, but he has returned to training and has had no ill-effects from the muscular problem.

David told crewealex.net:  “We were playing a small-sided game on Friday and Tom had a shot and then couldn’t move his neck. It was one of those things and everything went wrong from Friday through to Saturday. Tom’s replacement Conor (Grant) was knocked out after 10 minutes so we had to re-jig again.

“Tom is getting the mobility back and is beginning to turn his head, so we are hopeful on him.

“We missed him on Saturday because he gets on the ball. I would imagine that his pass competition would have better than most of the lads at Grimsby.

“He would have helped us play through midfield because we don’t just whack it. We are not used to it and we don’t do it.”