BEN Garratt could make a shock return from injury as he bids to keep Crewe Alexandra in League One.

The 20-year-old looked set to miss the rest of the season after breaking his leg in last month’s 2-0 defeat at Barnsley.

However his recovery has been rapid and boss Steve Davis is hopeful that he can call on this campaign’s stand-out performer Despite reported interest from Premier League clubs, Garratt is set to pen a new deal with the Alex as his contract expires this summer.

“There is a possibility that Ben might be back before the end of the season,” said Davis.

“He’s making really good progress and I’m quite surprised.

“His latest scan will probably dictate that as to whether or not the bone has healed.

"If it has then he can continue with his improvement and step his work up.

“We’re not that far away from him signing a new contract as well so we’re pleased about that.”

Davis might move for cover ahead of the loan deadline with only current number one Paul Rachubka between the sticks..

“We’ve got two options, we can either get someone in who’s better than what we have got or we can recall Scott (Shearer) from Burton,” he added.

“I think cover is important.

“We’ve gone without cover on the bench and that can be a problem if the keeper gets injured and a player has to go in.

“I think with eight games to go, it could be a too much of a risk so we need to make sure that we have two keepers.

‘We do have a recall on Scott and you have those clauses for reasons like now.

“That’s a decision we’ll make this week.

“We could still get someone in but it would cost money and I’m not sure we have it at the moment.”

Ryan Colclough could travel to play-off chasing Sheffield United on Saturday with both Marcus Haber and James Jones away on international duty.

The 20-year-old hasn’t featured since November 2013 with a succession of injuries and off-the-field problems.

But after scoring in the under 21s' 3-2 defeat against QPR, the striker is ready for a return.

“We wanted him to complete the game because he hasn’t done that for a while,” continued Davis.

“He’s been out for about 15 months now.

“If he gets through training, the likelihood is he’ll go to Sheffield.”

Three successive defeats have seen Crewe drop back into the bottom four but Davis remains confident they can survive.

“There’s a lot of teams still embroiled in it,” he said.

“We will keep fighting, giving our best and hoping it will be good enough.”