David Artell says that full-back Harry Pickering is making good progress over his hip injury and that a decision will be made of his availability after today’s final training session. Pickering picked up the injury late on in our 2-1 victory over Crawley and Nicky Hunt and youngster Rio Adebisi have deputised in his absence. Adebisi made an impressive senior debut against Aston Villa in the League Cup on Tuesday evening.

The Crewe Alexandra boss said: “Harry has made significant progress. He is coming along nicely and we will have another look at him today. He has had a good week and joined in with a few things without having any adverse effects.

“We will see how he is today and go from there. If Harry isn’t quite ready then we have Hunty and Rio. Rio did terrific on Tuesday night and he has a great character. He wasn’t fazed by it all and it was a good debut from him.

“There were one or two minor things that he could have done to help his mate out a couple of times but they were not his mistakes at such and that is me being overly critical of him on his debut against Premier League players. His performance was a real big positive from Tuesday night.”