Mansfield Town worry over skipper Aden Flint playing on with injury

Flint suffered a painful partial dislocation of his shoulder at AFC Wimbledon two weekends ago but he confounded everyone by bravely strapping up the injury and gritting his teeth to help Stags to a clean sheet in Saturday's 1-0 local derby win over Notts County.

Boss Nigel Clough said: “He walked around the first half of the week in a sling and didn't do anything until Friday morning and it was then just about how much pain he could tolerate on the day.

“But we got him strapped up and out there.

“Fortunately he didn't have any major incident where he fell on it or anything like that.

“The biggest worry was that he tumbled awkwardly.

“He cleared a ball from under his own crossbar in the second half and stayed down for a second and we were a bit concerned. But he said he just needed a breather!”

Clough continued: “He has no sling this week, but I think the pain will be there until the end of the season.

“He should be all right as long as we look after him in training, and we know there is always that chance of a freak incident that he just falls on it.

“We've had it with Anthony Hartigan and Rhys Oates with shoulder injuries and know if you fall on it again then it could be a problem.”