TOM O'CONNOR has been given a clean bill of health but Phil Parkinson hopes Ryan Barnett is not facing a spell on the sidelines.

O'Connor, a midfielder who has been in excellent form playing as the left-sided centre-back for the majority of the League Two campaign, missed 12 matches after sustaining a slight foot fracture ahead of the 1-0 Welsh derby loss against Newport County on January 20.

Although he made his comeback as a late substitute in Saturday's 1-0 loss to local rivals Tranmere Rovers at The Racecourse and he completed the game, O'Connor suffered a knee problem.

Parkinson was worried the 24-year-old was facing another injury lay-off but those fears have been allayed and he featured in yesterday's behind-closed-doors reserve fixture against Salford.

"We had a bit of scare when Tom got a whack towards the end of the game," said Parkinson.

"But he is fine and he played 60 minutes of the reserve game."

But Parkinson is keeping his fingers crossed that wing-back Barnett, who went off with a foot injury against Tranmere following a late tackle, receives good news after undergoing a scan yesterday.

"Barney is a little bit more serious," said the Reds' boss.

"I thought it was a dangerous challenge on Barney; he carried on for a bit but had to come off in the end in the second half.

"We had to him for a scan on his foot yesterday and we are just hoping to get good news with that.

"We are just hoping it is a badly bruised foot but we will know more later in the week."

Midfield duo George Evans (glute) and James Jones (hamstring) both picked up injuries in February and Parkinson said the former is closing in on a return to full training.

"George is back running on the grass and hopefully he will be back in full training early next week," he added.

"James is not really making the progress we wanted unfortunately."