Shrewsbury Town forward Shaun Whalley faces a fortnight out

Whalley picked up a hamstring injury in the FA Cup fourth-round replay defeat to Liverpool on Tuesday night.

The 32-year-old was forced off at Anfield and could miss a significant number of games with Town being in the midst of a hectic fixture schedule.

“It’s not looking good but we’ll wait over the next couple of days and see how it settles down,” said manager Sam Ricketts.

“But he’s going to be missing for the next couple of weeks I would have thought.”

Town are switching their attention back to League One action today with the visit of MK Dons.

And while their FA Cup exploits have won plaudits and national attention, Ricketts admits it has been a demanding time for his squad. “It was a distraction but not always in a bad way,” he added.

“It would have been great to get through, but it does mean we at least have one free midweek coming up that we wouldn’t have had.

“We were going to get knocked out of the FA Cup at some point, we just wanted to keep going for as long as we could.

“We have created moments and memories that will last a lifetime. There are a lot of positives to take from the FA Cup run, but now it’s back to the league.

“What we haven’t been able to do is have the recovery period.

We haven’t had a chance for everyone to take a breath and recover, both physically and mentally.”

Meanwhile, former Town forward Lenell John-Lewis has signed for National North outfit Hereford FC.

John-Lewis was released by Town last month at the end of the six-month contract he signed last summer.

The 30-year-old has returned to fitness after the ACL injury that kept him out for around 10 months.