Rovers check on Felipe availability

The Brazilian wing back has been out since December with a hamstring injury which ended his loan spell at the Keepmoat.

Ferguson was keen to extend Mattioni’s deal until the end of the season and admitted he has monitored the 27-year-old’s recovery since he returned to Goodison Park.

The Rovers boss does however remain doubtful over whether the former AC Milan defender would come back to Doncaster

“Felipe has only just come back to playing,” Ferguson told The Star.

“He played in an under-21s game last week.

“They’ve been in Dubai until Friday but we’re going to be speaking to Everton again about the possibility of him coming back to us.

“But from my last conversation it would be unlikely he would be coming back to us.”

Paul Keegan suffered a dead leg during Saturday’s draw with Millwall which led to his withdrawal just after half time.

And Ferguson also admitted James Coppinger is not fully fit which has partially led to him being named on the bench for the last two games.

With the squad low on numbers, Ferguson says he may have to make a loan signing if he loses any more players.

He said: “We need to have a little chat with Copps on Monday about how much training he can get in.

“He hasn’t trained a great deal and we’re down to about 18 players now so I need to make sure he’s ok.

“I’ve just got to be careful with the numbers we’ve got and I’ll probably have to go game to game with that one in terms of potentially bringing people in.”

Gary MacKenzie has returned to Rovers following the end of his loan spell with Notts County.