WINGER J'Neil Bennett's long-term injury has forced him to cut short his loan spell at Crewe.

The highly-rated 19-year-old is to return to Tottenham to complete his rehabilitation from an ankle ligament injury sustained in training with the Alex.

Bennett - whose loan stint was due to end in January - last featured against Wolves under-21s in the Papa John's Trophy on November 9.

But with the recovery time from the injury likely to extend over 10 weeks he is heading back to the capital, although Dave Artell is not ruling out looking at the loan again in the new year.

"It is a blow for J'Neil and a blow for us," admitted the Crewe manager. "Unfortunately his injury will take him beyond his loan spell and he will be going back there.

"J'Neil is a great lad, his personality is infectious and he is going to have a bright future."

The teenager impressed early on his loan spell with Crewe, scoring in the September win against Burton. Earmarked as replacement for Owen Dale, now out on loan at Blackpool, the youngster, a regular in Spurs under-23 side, found the jump to League One standard harder later.

But Artell added: "J'Neil is out of contract at the end of the season and we'll have a look. We'll revisit the situation in January, but we've got a lot to do before the end of that month."

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Crewe will look to progress further in the Papa John's Trophy tomorrow night (Wednesday) when fellow strugglers Doncaster Rovers are the visitors (K.O 7.45pm) for a second round tie.

The game could offer another opportunity for Academy-raised Regan Griffiths, who made his first league start in Sunday's defeat (1-2) at Ipswich where skipper Luke Murphy was missing from the centre of the park as he was serving out a one-game ban for picking up five bookings.

Griffiths has featured previously in the Papa John's Trophy, but has had to bide his time for league action and he admitted: "I think it was a good time for me to play. Having to wait has done me good as I've had to sharpen up on things in my game.

"Hopefully, I've done enough to stay in and go from there.

"Morale is still quite high in the group and we've just got to keep going and stay together."

Callum Ainley and Travis Johnson are back in training after injury lay-offs, but won't be involved and a toe injury could keep Callum McFadzean out. On-loan midfielder Scott Robertson and Scott Kashket have both suffered ankle injuries, and while Kashket was forced off at Ipswich the injury is not expected to be a serious one.

Crewe won all three of their group games and of the Doncaster tie, Artell said: "It is going to be a tough game against Doncaster. They are probably using the competition as we are using it - it isn't going to be an easy game."