Stallard will be back soon

Notts originally feared that the striker had suffered a broken metatarsal, the bone made famous by David Beckham, & that Stall would be out for around 6-8 weeks.

However X-rays have shown otherwise & it is now a matter of weeks rather than months as to when Stallard will return.

"The tests have given us some very good news," manager Dearden told the Evening Post "There is no bone damage to Mark's foot.

"He has still got some extremely severe bruising, which has come up quite badly since Monday.

"And we will not know how bad the injury is until that goes down.

"But what is certain is that he will not be out for two months now.

"I would not like to put an exact time-scale on things but I would expect that we are now talking a matter of around two weeks.

"Obviously, though we would rather he wasn't out at all, that is much better than the alternative.

"Mark is already feeling much better about things. Hopefully, he will make a swift recovery."

This is very good news for Notts, as Stallard, although yet to get off the mark in this campaign, fired an impressive 25 goals for The Pies last season.

It also may mean that Notts won't lose last season's top pairing of Paul Heffernan & Stallard at the same time, as Stallard could well be back by the time Heffernan's suspension starts.

Bad news for Notts today though is that Michael Brough could be missing for a while longer, even if he recovers from a thigh strain that has been keeping him out.

Brough has been named in the Wales under-21 squad and, if he can prove his fitness he will travel to Italy on Sunday.

Wales will then play Italy on the Friday.