SAM Surridge is doubtful for the trip to Mansfield on Tuesday after a sore hip kept him out of the 0-0 draw at Swindon yesterday.

The seven-goal top marksman, on a season-long loan from Bournemouth, didn’t travel to Wiltshire after feeling a niggle on Friday.

But on the positive side, some of Frankie Bunn’s walking wounded were able to make more good progress with the likes of Ishmael Miller, Jose Baxter and Cameron Dummigan all giving the manager plenty of food for thought.

The Latics boss told The Oldham Times: “It wasn’t worth risking Sam. He pulled up with a sore hip on Friday and we’ll have to see how he responds.

“On the plus-side, Ishmael got some more minutes under his belt.

“I thought Ish was terrific – he’s another one, like Jose, who hasn’t played for a long period of time.

“We have to keep drip-feeding them into games and hopefully they will both come through.

“The way we work, everyone is prepared and Ish was fully prepared to start the game.

“Jose was OK . . . we’re still working towards his fitness and he’s been tremendous in training.

“We’ll keep working him and hopefully we’ll get there.

“He got a goal at Grimsby which was a tough game to come into but we’ll keep on nursing him along.

“Cameron hasn’t been with us for six or seven weeks – but he’s had a couple of weeks’ training and will get better.”