The accolade came after the 26-goal striker was named in the PFA's League Two team of the year.

Lester, who joined the Spireites last summer from Nottingham Forest, will collect his award in the first few weeks of nextseason.

And he could be in line for a final day recall as Chesterfield hope to sign off their campaign with a victory.

Lester has been sidelined with a broken nose since a clash with an Accrington Stanley defender in March.

Following an initial operation to correct the problem, he came on as a second half substitute against Darlington but it was only a cameo performance and the 1-1 draw saw all hopes of reaching the play-offs vanish.

Lester missed out on last week's match – a disappointing 1-0 defeat at Macclesfield – but there are hopes that he will be available for the derby clash at Saltergate against Notts County.

Manager Lee Richardson said he would have a clearer picture after training today.

''He had a bit of a blockage which affected his breathing, so he underwent another operation, a minor one, on Tuesday and he's due back today.

''We want to win every game – there's no change there – and it would be nice to finish with three points,'' said Lee.

The Spireites boss admitted that he was disappointed with both the result and the performance at Macclesfield.

Since Colin Hawkins arrival on loan from Coventry at the end of March, he has been paired in the centre of defence with Aaron Downes, but the Darlington result allowed Richardson a degree of experimentation.

At Moss Rose, he paired Hawkins with Janos Kovacs but the manager cannot have liked what he saw for his men trailed 1-0 at half time and Kovacs was brought off.