Clough on injury misfortune as Gregory and Oates out

Lee Gregory and Rhys Oates have featured together just once this season

Nigel Clough says losing strikers Lee Gregory and Rhys Oates to injury for the rest of the season feels like his side has "been kicked from pillar to post" by bad fortune.

Gregory was forced off in the first half of Friday's defeat by Northampton Town with a knee injury.

A similar injury had kept Stags' second top scorer out for almost two months across November and December last year.

Meanwhile, Oates was left out of the Stags updated 22-player squad for the remainder of the season after struggling to return from a knee injury of his own.

"We have to be very careful with the strikers that we have left," Clough told BBC Radio Nottingham.

"We are getting kicked from pillar to post with every single little thing at the moment.

"That is the way it is going, and we have to cope with it somehow."

It was only last week that Mansfield bolstered their attacking options, with the prolific Jordan Rhodes joining on loan from Blackpool on transfer deadline day alongside Brighton and Hove Albion's Caylan Vickers.

Experienced striker Gregory was a high-profile signing last summer, with the 36-year-old returning to the newly promoted League One side 13 years after he left the Stags while they were still playing at non-league level.

He has scored 10 goals in 23 appearances during his injury-interrupted campaign.

Meanwhile, 30-year-old Oates has been limited to just four appearances after being sidelined for 11 months with a knee injury.

He made his comeback in early December, but hurt himself again when he made his first start of the campaign against Bolton on 1 January.

"It's devastating for him and for us," Clough said.

"He has spent the past four or five weeks trying to get it right to get back on the pitch, desperate to get playing again, but it's not quite right.

"We thought it was best to say, 'You have two or three months now until the summer, so do whatever it takes - if it needs a small operation, a cleanout or whatever - to get it sorted to make sure you are ready for pre-season'."