BILLY Bodin was rested for Oxford United’s win at home to Burton Albion, in order to avoid a potential lay-off because of a niggling injury.

The 31-year-old was left out of the matchday squad for the 3-0 victory, with a Ruben Rodrigues brace and wonder strike from Marcus McGuane seeing off the Brewers.

United head coach Des Buckingham stressed that Bodin’s situation was not a serious one, and that the club will just have to monitor his minutes for the time being.

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Buckingham said: “He’s just nursing a slight niggle, it’s nothing major. You’ve seen over the last couple of games, he’s either been a part of the game, whether he started and came off, or started him on the bench and brought him on.

“It’s just about trying to manage that niggle and get that to settle.

“Hopefully with the games now Saturday to Saturday, he’s going to have a full week which should just settle it down.

“We know how important Billy is, and we’ll hopefully welcome him back come Saturday.

“We’ve got a lot of players that are missing and I don’t want to put any more at further risk, where we lose someone of Billy’s quality.

“If we risk him too much, we could miss him for three or four weeks, which over this period of time, would hit us hard.”