Stefan Payne gives Shrewsbury a timely injury boost
Shrewsbury Town have received a fitness boost as on-loan forward Stefan Payne's foot injury doesn't appear to be as bad as first feared.
The 25-year-old lasted just 10 minutes in his blue and amber bow, coming off after being awkwardly landed on in a collision against Bury.
Town feared a repeat of the metatarsal injury that Payne suffered at Oakwell in August after joining the Championship outfit from non-league Dover in the summer.
That injury sidelined the striker, one of Paul Hurst's eight January additions, for the best part of three months.
But despite not full clarity on the extent of the problem, Hurst is confident it isn't as bad as first feared and he will feature again for the club.
"At the minute we're not 100 per cent clear of what the injury is but we're certainly hopeful that it's not as bad as first feared," said Hurst.
"He certainly won't be available this weekend or Tuesday but we are a bit more optimistic that he will be back in a Shrewsbury Town shirt.
"When we were talking after the game and on Monday we were very fearful that realistically that would be it. We'd seen him for 11 or 12 minutes.
"Fingers crossed that it will heal and he'll be back with us.
"He's at Barnsley, it was part of the agreement to go back there. While we're fully aware of the strength of our medical team, ultimately he's their player and they have a very good department.
"Hopefully we'll get him back across when he's ready for training."
Fellow forward AJ Leitch-Smith is cautiously continuing his return from a long-term knee problem. The former Port Vale forward was declared fit by Hurst last week but missed out of the match day 18 against Bury.
Hurst pulled out of some of Town's training on the harder 4G surface this week, and the boss revealed Leitch-Smith is 10 days or so away from a full return.
