After making his comeback in the quickly re-arranged Senior Cup tie against Bury, Ben Thatcher could be in line for a return to Stuart Pearce’s squad for Monday’s game against Middlesbrough.

The Manager has spoken at length about Thatcher’s enforced lay off since the now infamous August incident with Pedro Mendes.

“Ben’s worked very hard in the time that he’s been off the field,” said Pearce.

“He’s had no time off, I’ve not said to him, ‘take a week off here and a week off there.’ He’s worked as hard as he possibly could on the training pitch and been good around the place.

“When you’ve got nothing to look forward to at the end of the week it’s very, very difficult as a player. But credit to him he’s grafted away really well and certainly in Ben’s case it’s pleasing to have him back.”

Obviously what happened against Portsmouth that night came up during the chat, and the Manager told us: “I think he’s very disappointed about it, as I’ve said from the outset.

“Speaking with him the morning after I knew exactly the remorse that was in his face and in his heart. He’s got to learn by that and make sure it doesn’t happen again, that’s for sure.”

And with the incident splashed across front and back pages of the papers and the constant stream of replays keeping it fresh in the minds of the public, does Pearce think the excessive coverage got to his full back?

“I’m sure it must have done. I don’t think any individual could have gone under that spotlight and be totally oblivious to it.

“Ben’s got a reputation of being a tough tackling left back and sometimes people perceive you being the same off a football pitch as you are on it – and being totally oblivious to any criticism you might get. That often isn’t the case and isn’t the case with Ben.

“He’s been affected by it but he’s handled it pretty well, but you know the testing time is how he learns by it.”