Crewe Alexandra defender Eddie Nolan will get more game time this afternoon for the club’s Under-23 at Sheffield United. The former Republic of Ireland International is on the road to recovery after suffering a calf injury against Macclesfield Town in September.

Nolan played his first 45 minutes in last Under-23s fixture against Nottingham Forest and will get an opportunity to play for as long as possible today.

The 30-year-old won the club’s Player-of-the-Season award last season, but he now faces a challenge to get ahead of George Ray, Perry Ng and Nicky Hunt in central defence.

David Artell told the club’s official website:  “Eddie will play for as long as he can at Sheffield United today and we will see how he is. If he cannot quite last the 90 minutes then we have a game against Leeds United next week.

“Eddie needs to get a full 90 minutes under his belt first. There is no need to rush him back because firstly we have done well defensively and at his time in his career, you don’t want to rush him back and then put him out for longer.

He added: “We have to be mindful of that but it is good to have our player of the year but he knows he has a task on to get back into the team.”