Ian Burchnall is confident that Jake Reeves will win his fitness battle to play in Notts County's crunch play-off clash against Chesterfield at the weekend.
Reeves was replaced at half-time in the 1-0 defeat to Bromley last weekend because of a heel problem and was subsequently sent for scans.
But while they have come back showing no serious damage, Reeves has not been pushed in training this week in the hope he will be fit to face the Spirieites.
Reeves has been exceptional in recent weeks and his absence would be a blow for Notts given his current form.
But head coach Burchnall remains optimistic that he will be available.
"He's improved through the week," said Burchnall.
"We haven't really pushed it to be honest because he doesn't need it from a training capacity.
"It's just to rest the heel a little bit.
"He's got progressively better every day. He tested it a bit yesterday and we'll go out onto the pitch today and, hopefully, all being well then he'll be okay for Saturday.
"But we've taken it a day at a time. We'll try to give him as much rest as we can.
"I'm quite confident that he'll play in the game.
"We've done loads of scans and everything and there's nothing that's damaged. It's more bad bruising and things like that.
"So it's kind of pain tolerance, I guess. We're hoping that he's going to be no problem."
