Crewe Alexandra boss David Artell has revealed that James Jones feels in ‘much better shape’ after he had an injection to ease the pain in his pelvic area. Jones has not kicked a ball this season after undergoing a hernia operation in the summer and the Scotland Under-21 midfielder had been suffering with some discomfort as he neared a return to full training.

Artell told crewealex.net: “James is progressing on nicely and he is feeling better in himself. He is more and more feeling something like and he is positive. He feels in better shape and although I don’t want to put a time frame on it, he feels far better.

“I am being cautious because you have to get to the final stage of rehab when you have to push yourself that extra 10% that you sometimes feel that it isn’t quite there or something doesn’t feel quite right.

“We will continue to take our time with him because we don’t want him to suffer a set-back and go back a stage. He feels good and that is good news for us.”