Michael Appleton reveals Shrewsbury Town optimism after injury setback

Experienced frontman Oliver, 33, limped out of Tuesday night's 0-0 draw at Wycombe in the opening stages and head coach Michael Appleton's initial assessment was the injury looked a significant one.

But Appleton has confirmed scans revealed no breaking of a bone but ligament damage for the on-loan Bradford striker.

Oliver, a January recruit who has two goals in 11 appearances for Town, is expected to complete his rehabilitation at the club's Sundorne training HQ and could potentially feature in League One again this season, with Saturday's clash of the bottom two against Cambridge the first of seven games left.

"I'm not going to go into detail in terms of trying to explain the type of injury, because I'm not a medical man - but basically it's not as bad as first feared," said Appleton.

"There's clearly an injury to the ligaments but there's no bone break. When I saw the size of his ankle when walking off I was almost convinced he'd broken his ankle because it was so big, it was huge.

"But it's not as severe as first thought. Is there an opportunity to see him before the end of the season? There's an outside chance.

"Initially we thought there was no chance, but I think there can be an outside chance.

"He'll be here. He left 10 minutes or so ago, I'm sure he'll have his boot on for a few days or a week and then back into rehab as quick as possible."

Fellow Shrewsbury attacker and January recruit Ricardo Dinanga, the signing from non-league neighbours AFC Telford United, is rated touch-and-go after rolling his ankle in training on Thursday. Dinanga was not in the squad to face Wycombe in midweek.