David Artell has told the club’s official website that Harry Pickering is fit and available for this weekend’s home game against Bury, but that he is in no rush to bring the versatile youngster back into his starting XI.

Pickering, 19, made a successful return from injury as a second half substitute against Lincoln City last week. He has returned ahead of schedule after suffering a hamstring tear away at Colchester United at the end of August.

The Crewe Alexandra boss told crewealex.net: “Harry got on the pitch at Lincoln last week and he looked a bit rusty, but that is to be expected.

“He has had another week’s training under his belt no and he is fit and available. We will see how he is today and make a decision on that.

“You cannot really say if it would be a gamble or not and hindsight is a great thing. If he pulls up after 20 minutes you would say it was a risk but if he plays well for 90 minutes then it wouldn’t be.

The boss added: “What I do know is we don’t really have to push him. We have coped without key players all season and I think the squad is big enough now to do that.”