First Paul Mullin, now Elliot Lee! Why Wrexham benched 14-goal midfielder alongside star striker – with Ryan Reynolds & Rob McElhenney favourites handed cameo roles against MK Dons

The Red Dragons have, courtesy of Hollywood co-owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, been able to piece together a squad that boasts the depth required to deal with a gruelling 46-game League Two campaign. With so many matches to take in – as domestic cup competitions are also added to the pot – rest and rotation will be required at times.

Parkinson has taken to shuffling his pack of late, with star striker Mullin starting a couple of games among the replacements. He was joined on the bench by talismanic midfielder Lee for a trip to Stadium MK, with the pair handed cameo roles in a 1-1 draw that lasted less than half-an-hour apiece.

Explaining Lee’s absence from the Wrexham starting XI, with George Evans and James Jones among those currently nursing injuries, Parkinson said: “Elliot has played more minutes than any other player. I just felt that to play him again after putting so much effort in at the weekend and the midweek game at Sutton would put him at risk of maybe getting a little injury. With the injuries we have got, I didn't want to take that risk. I said to Elliot: 'it would be great for you to come on after 60 minutes when the game has opened up' and he was magic when he came on.”

Parkinson added on the knocks picked up by Evans and Jones, who are recovering from glute and hamstring problems respectively: "Both look quite serious unfortunately for us. We have had setbacks in that department but that's the way it goes and we will have to address that.”

Wrexham, who have moved back into the automatic promotion places in League Two, will return to action on Saturday when taking in a trip to Gillingham – with Parkinson’s side on a run of three successive away games.