Marcus Bignot will give his Chester players Christmas Day off as he feels ‘football needs to be kept in perspective’.

The Blues face a crucial period of four games in nine days in their fight to avoid relegation, but the players won’t be asked to train on Christmas Day itself, with Bignot keen to allow them some crucial family time.

“As a player I’ve trained Christmas Day, Christmas morning and evening, I’ve travelled Christmas Day,” said Bignot ahead of today’s trip to Halifax Town.

“But I’ve always said sometimes you’ve got to put football in perspective. We did a hospital visit on Tuesday and that put it all in perspective.

“It’s about spending time with loved ones and family. These aren’t Premier League footballers, they’re not getting paid X,Y,Z, for me it’s a day with the family.

“You can’t control impact injuries, but certainly in terms of muscles and fatigue we can manage things.

!This is a period where we have the whole group available and that’s credit to physio Kath and all the guys working hard to have them available.”