Shrewsbury Town midfielder Sean McAllister faces a spell on the sidelines as he goes under the knife for a hernia operation tomorrow.

The 23-year-old missed Town’s win over Stevenage last weekend and is unlikely to return to training until mid-March.

But Town boss Graham Turner said now was the right time for the former Sheffield Wednesday man to have the operation.

“It’s a good time for him to have it done,” said Turner. “He’s been carrying the injury for a while, but we felt that now we have a couple of extra bodies in the midfield with Nicky Wroe and David Davis as well as Kevin McIntyre and Craig Disley, we were able to get it done now.

“He’s having the operation tomorrow and I would expect him to be out for three to four weeks.”

Meanwhile, Turner admitted he was pleased to have striker Nathan Elder on the comeback trial.

The former Brentford man – who hasn’t featured for Town since last season – was handed a 20 minute run-out against Macclesfield reserves yesterday.

And Turner said having the 25-year-old back in the fold was almost like a new signing.

He added: “He played for 20 minutes in midweek and we’ve got another game against Burnley next week where I would expect him to play for a half or an hour.

“He is still some way short of coming into first team contention but he is scheduled to train today so there are no after affects of the injury.”

And the Town chief refused to rule out a loan move for Elder as he seeks match practice in the coming weeks.

He added: “I don’t think that is something we are thinking about at the moment, it might happen further down the line but at the minute we need to get him back to playing games.”

Meanwhile, Elder’s fellow striker Tom Bradshaw remains on the sidelines with an ankle injury and will miss Saturday’s trip to Rotherham, while the match is also likely to come too soon for returning striker Benjamin van den Broek, who also featured for the reserves in midweek.

By ALEX JAMES