Dale defender Nathan Stanton will have to sit out his weekend's trip to Exeter City as he serves a one match suspension due to accumulating five yellow cards.

Stanton had been on a suspension knife edge for a couple of weeks, and was left on the bench for the visit to Forest Green Rovers in the FA Cup, with the important game at Darlington looming the following week.

But a booking picked up in Saturday's home draw with Bournemouth will mean that Stanton will pick up an automatic one match ban as it was his fifth of the season.

The good news for Dale is that we will have Rory McArdle available for selection once again, as he too was forced to miss a game last week for the same reason that Stanton misses this weekend's game.

It is expected that Marcus Holness will retain his place in defence alongside the returning Rory McArdle this weekend.

Photo: Action Images

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