Bira Dembele is a doubt for Thursday’s League Two play-off semi-final second leg at Southend United after suffering a head injury at the Lamex Stadium.

Boro’s captain was involved in a sickening clash of heads in the first-half of Saturday’s tie that left Michael Timlin requiring 15 stitches to his forehead and Dembele prone on the ground for several minutes.

Timlin was substituted for Gary Deegan following the collision while Dembele played the remainder of the half before being replaced by Jon Ashton.

Two days out from the return leg at Roots Hall, Stevenage manager Graham Westley was non-committal on whether his captain would play.

“He’s fine in himself – he’s much better today,” he said. “He had a scan after the game which was clean – that was positive. He’s settling now and improving day by day. We’ll see how he is when he’s in [on Wednesday].

“The [brain] scan was as good as we expected it to be. If you saw the collision you’ll be certain there are some symptoms of concussion but the extent is for the doctors, Bira and the physiotherapy team to look at.”

Stevenage travel to Southend on Thursday with the tie all-square at 1-1, kick-off is 7.45pm.