Courtney Baker-Richardson is in a race against time to be fit to face Barrow on Saturday.

Crewe Alexandra’s top scorer, who has eight goals to his name this term, finished the 1-1 draw at Wimbledon in midweek with a shoulder injury.

Manager Alex Morris will give him every opportunity to prove his fitness ahead of the trip to Cumbria.

But he admitted it is touch-and-go at best.

Morris said: “We won’t know until tomorrow (Saturday) morning with him, because he won’t  be able to train.

“It’s looking more unlikely than likely that he’s going to be certain to start. The medical team will get to work on him - he’s had a lot of attempts at therapy and treatment over the last couple of days.

“The decision on him can’t really be made until tomorrow morning. It will go down to the wire.”

Baker-Richardson faces joining a list of five other key men who are sidelined at the moment, which includes Christopher Long (ankle) and Rod McDonald (hamstring).

Morris added: “Potentially, six starters won’t be available for the game against Barrow.

“Four of them are hopefully going to be short-term in terms of their return times, whereas Callum (Ainley) is a bit further away and Rodney is somewhere in between.

“That’s football, you have to deal with anything that comes your way, you can’t do anything about it.

“You look for different solutions and you try and be as creative as you can in terms of putting a team out that’s going to win the game.”