CRAIG Jones faces a race against time to be fit for Bury's home clash with Oxford United on Saturday.

The full-back tore his thigh muscle during the Shakers’ last victory – against MK Dons 11 weeks ago – but answered an SOS from caretaker boss Chris Brass to return early from injury.

He has started the last three games but struggled to see them out, substituted in Bury's last two defeats.

“Craig Jones will be tight,” Brass told the Bury Times. “We will probably have to assess it on the morning of the game as we did last weekend. He requires daily monitoring."

The Shakers have a host of players out injured or suspended, but Brass expects his squad to be stronger over the festive period.

He said: “Zeli Ismail and Ishmail Miller could be back over Christmas but this weekend might just come too soon for them. Leon Barnett is slightly behind where we wanted him to be, but he isn’t far away.”

The Shakers will be boosted by the return of captain and centre-back Antony Kay after he served his one-match suspension against Bristol Rovers last weekend.

Fellow defender Niall Maher remains suspended after his red card against Millwall, meaning 16-year-old Jacob Bedeau could be set for his second start in as many games after impressing on his full debut last time out.

“Kay travelled with us to Bristol, which was pleasing,” Brass said. “It shows his commitment and I’m glad he will be back in the fray.

“In the modern game it is tough for a defender to get to the threshold without picking up five yellow cards and Kay fell just at the final hurdle.

“(Oxford boss) Michael (Appleton) likes to play good football, they are in decent form so I think it will make for a really entertaining game.

“There are no easy games but we will try and get the ball down and play and hopefully start turning performances into results soon.”

Bury will also be without midfielder Neil Danns after they decided not to appeal his red card for an elbow on Bristol Rovers’ Ollie Clarke during the 4-2 defeat last weekend.

“Unfortunately, Neil has raised his hands off the ball so we can’t do anything about that in regards of an appeal,” Brass said.

“Their lad raised his hands first and if the referee would have seen that then they would have been down to 10 men too.

“Having looked back at the weekend’s game we are disappointed with the result but there were certainly parts of the performance that we were happy with.

“We have broken it down and there is a level of frustration because it was individual mistakes again. We have been through it and we are looking at different ways to cut it out.”

Bury go into Saturday's match in the middle of a club-record run of 11 straight defeats in the league, and 15 games without a win in all competitions.

During that nightmare sequence of results they have fallen from second in League One to fifth-bottom, one place above the relegation zone.