Macclesfield Town's first-team squad are not currently taking part in training after failing to receive their latest round of wages, The Sun journalist Alan Nixon has reported.

The Silkmen have already been embroiled in financial controversy on a number of occasions this season, with the first-team having previously boycotted their FA Cup first-round defeat to non-league Kingstonian at the start of November over unpaid wages.

As well as that, the League Two side have also been charged by the EFL with misconduct over those unpaid wages in the past few weeks, while a winding-up petition against the club was recently adjourned for a seventh time, with HMRC claiming they are owed £180,000 by the Silkmen.

According to Nixon's latest update, that issue of unpaid wages has now risen its head again, with the club's senior players not currently training, and not set to play their match at home to promotion contenders Crewe on Saturday if they do not receive their wages before then, with the failure to fulfil that fixture potentially risking further punishment from the EFL.

The club could however, look to get around that be fielding a combination of loan and youth players, just as they did in that Cup tie with Kingstonian earlier in the season.

On the pitch, Macclesfield are currently 14th in the League Two standings, following their 1-1 draw with Bradford City on Saturday afternoon.

The Verdict

You really do have to feel for Macclesfield's players here.

They are not on anywhere near the sort of wages you find at the top end of the footballing pyramid, so it is not as though this money is something they can go without from one week to the next.

With that in mind, you can fully understand why they once again find themselves on strike, as they look to draw attention towards the plight they currently find themselves in.

That they find themselves in such a situation is only made even sadder, by the fact that on the pitch, they look like a much more effective unit this season than they did on their return to the Football League during the previous campaign, and you feel that is something everyone concerned with the club would much rather focus on.