Shrewsbury Town are hopeful Lionel Ainsworth could return for Saturday’s League Two trip to Wycombe – but will not take any risks with the winger.

Ainsworth, who turns 23 on Friday week, missed Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Northampton after picking up a minor groin strain in training last Thursday.

Manager Graham Turner today confirmed the former Hereford and Huddersfield ace had a decent chance of being available for this weekend’s trip to take on the Chairboys.

But with a busy period on the horizon – Town play four games in 11 days from Saturday – a careful approach is planned.

“Lionel hasn’t trained yet – whether he improves sufficiently to join in later in the week remains to be seen,” said the Shrewsbury boss.

“We are hopeful he will be fit for the weekend but with two games in four days and a big one at Port Vale on Tuesday, we will not take any chances.”

Long-term victim Nathan Elder has spent the last three weeks continuing his rehabilitation at Lilleshall while Turner is hoping there may be brighter news on Benjamin van den Broek.

The initial diagnosis was that the Dutchman suffered a fractured ankle in last weekend’s 3-2 reserve team defeat to Preston.

But Shrewsbury were today awaiting the results of the second scan hoping that van den Broek could make a quicker recover than the first indication of eight weeks.

Meanwhile, Turner has hailed the impact of central midfielder Craig Disley during the opening weeks of the campaign.

“Craig had a few injury problems last season but the lad has got good vision, good control and he runs it quite well for us from midfield,” added the Town chief.

“Craig has got a little bit of know-how about him and can sort things out for us and that will be crucial.”