Jay Smith may delay Gavin Strachan's long awaited return with his fantastic displays in the centre of midfield.
A regular since Adam Nowland picked up a terrible hamstring injury, Smith has put in consistently strong performances alongside Richard Butcher.
Notts County Mad takes a look at the former Southend player and Accrington Stanley's returning international, Jimmy Ryan ahead of tomorrow's game...
Jimmy Ryan is a former Liverpool youth player who signed for Accrington over the summer, having been released by Shrewsbury Town.
Since then he has featured in four games for the club, after making his debut in the 3-0 Carling Cup defeat to Burnley.
The young midfielder is renowned for his long-range shooting, netting on a few occasions throughout Liverpool's back-to-back FA Youth Cup wins in 2006 and 2007.
He has already begun to demonstrate this in the football league too, grabbing his first goal for Accrington against Macclesfield Town, driving the ball past a clumsy Macclesfield goalkeeper from 25-yards out.
Richard Butcher and Jay Smith will have to shut down Ryan early to ensure that he does not punish Notts with a trademark long distance effort.
The 20-year-old will return from international duty to face the Magpies, after starting in the Republic of Ireland under-21's 2-2 draw with Portugal earlier in the week.
Jay Smith is now looking like the player he was a couple of seasons ago, putting last season's below-par displays behind him.
Relishing in Notts' new style of play, Smith looked very comfortable in the centre against Bournemouth, calmly pivoting on the ball and bringing others into the game.
Already the ankle-biting midfielder has two assists to his name, first sliding Myles Weston through in the cup win over Doncaster Rovers, followed by last week's lofted ball towards Jamie Forrester, to set up a fine volley.
It can be argued that he looks for the defence splitting pass far too often, but there will be no grumbles from Ian McParland or the travelling fans if he adds to his assist tally.
We may see an even better display from Smith at the Fraser Eagle Stadium, as he knows that Gavin Strachan will now be pushing him for a starting place, following his return from injury.