Injured Salop man won’t be rushed back

At first, it looked like a serious injury, with all parties fearing the worst, but scans revealed it was not as bad as first thought, and the centre-back is doing well with his rehab and is just a few weeks away from returning to action.

“I think he is still a couple of weeks away,” the Town boss said about Flanagan.

“In terms of how long he has been out, I know it is nowhere near as long as what was first feared, but he will take a bit of time to get up to speed.”

Flanagan has made 67 League One appearances for Shrewsbury after he was signed by Steve Cotterill in January 2022 – and he has managed to score two goals.

With Shrewsbury playing with a back five for the vast majority of this season so far, the Town squad has a lot of centre-backs in it.

Since Hurst has arrived, they have switched to a back four, with Aaron Pierre and skipper Chey Dunkley being the first choice pairing so far.

The duo contributed towards a clean sheet at Northampton in Hurst’s first game but let in two against Cambridge.

Joe Anderson and Jason Sraha are the current defensive cover and there is also Morgan Feeney, currently playing a right-back, who is also a central defender.

What the depth does mean is that Town do not need to rush Flanagan back when he does get over his knee issue.

“There is certainly no pressure on our side,” he said.

“I want him to be right when he does come back, and then obviously it adds competition, and we will all see where we are at in terms of what decisions they are moving forward.

“Whether he goes straight into the team or he is on the bench and he has to wait his turn.

“There is a lot of football still to be played with a couple of midweek games coming up where I would not envisage Tom being involved in any of those.

“So like I said, we will see where we are at with that.”