Mark Ellis on the way back for Shrewsbury

The former Crewe Alexandra centre-half had been expected to be out for four to five weeks, after picking up a knee injury in the team's recent Capital One Cup victory over Championship side Blackpool.

But he saw a specialist earlier this week and manager Micky Mellon is now optimistic that he will be back in contention for a place sooner than initially thought.

He said: "We have had some positive news. He's recovering probably quicker than we would have expected.

"You can't put a time scale on it because you will just let people down but let's just say it is not going to be as long as we first thought, fingers crossed, and he's getting better very quickly."

Ex-Peterborough defender Nathaniel Knight-Percival has been moved in from his previous role in the side, at full-back, to cover for Ellis while Mickey Demetriou has come in to the side to fill the left-back slot in Town's last two matches.

And Mellon said he has been pleased but not surprised by the way the side have coped in Ellis's absence.

He said :"We work very hard with them all the time to cover all eventualities in training.

"They are good players so they will seamlessly go on and do the job that they have been doing for us."

Meanwhile, midfielder Dave McAllister made his return to full-time training yesterday as expected, having recovered from ankle problems which had sidelined him since March.