Crewe Alexandra have been handed a boost with the news that our experienced striker Chris Dagnall is set to play some part for the Under-23s against Birmingham City on Tuesday. Dagnall, who has scored seven goals this season, as well as playing in central midfield on occasions, has missed the last six weeks due to a knee injury.

The Liverpool-born Dagnall is now free from the injury and David Artell has admitted that he would have been in contention for a place in the squad that would have faced Forest Green Rovers on Saturday, before its postponement.

The Crewe boss told the club’s official website: “Daggers has returned to training and has suffered no reaction. We expect him to play some part against Birmingham on Tuesday. We will see if that is going to be 45, 60, 75 minutes but he will get game time.

“He has been out for a few weeks now but we could have used him as a substitute on Saturday. It would have been for the last 15, 10 minutes but he would have been keen to play.

“We have checked him out and he is fine. Now we just have to see if he is fully capable of coping with the overloading that will come with playing.”