Dutchman Benjamin van den Broek has been ruled out of Shrewsbury Town’s Christmas programme – after undergoing knee surgery.

The 23-year-old forward limped out of Town’s 0-0 reserves draw with Accrington Stanley earlier this month and went under the surgeon’s knife on Tuesday.

Boss Graham Turner has had better news with regards to on-loan Manchester City midfielder Andrew Tutte, who seems to have shaken off a continuing back problem.

Tutte, 20, has trained for the last two days and could be in contention for the Boxing Day clash at home to Shrewsbury’s League Two promotion rivals Bury.

That game is subject to a pitch inspection at noon tomorrow - with Shrewsbury today starting a mammoth snow clearing operation in a bid to get it on.

With regards to the latest injury updates, Turner revealed: “Benji will be out for about six weeks after his surgery.

“Andrew trained for the last couple of days with no reaction so he is in contention for all our games over Christmas.”

Town issued an appeal yesterday for volunteers to help clear snow and ice from the stadium and its surrounds today.

And Turner admits they have a big task on their hands to enable the Boxing Day clash to go ahead as scheduled.

“The pitch, under the snow and frost covers, is okay,” the Town boss declared.

“The difficulty will be the surrounds and the amount of snow to be shifted.

“The car park is a big area and we can’t afford to take any chances with supporters’ safety so that needs to be cleared and gritted.

“We’ll have a referee in to look at it tomorrow,” he added. “I don’t know whether he’ll take any action then but the game has to be in the balance.

“I’ve heard various forecasts and we’ll have to wait and see if it warms up on Boxing Day, but we’re doing everything we possibly can.”

By Chris Hudson