Mansfield striker Lucas Akins named in club squad while serving jail term for fatal collision

Mansfield Town striker Lucas Akins has been named on his club’s squad list for the 2025-26 season despite currently serving a 14-month prison sentence for causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving.

Akins, 36, pleaded guilty in April after a March 2022 collision in which cyclist Adrian Daniel, 33, suffered a catastrophic head injury and died 10 days later. He is serving the sentence in custody and is subject to a two-year driving disqualification. Reports indicate he could be eligible for release after serving half of the term, which would allow him to serve the remainder on licence and potentially return to playing later this year.

Mansfield confirmed that Akins remains listed on the club website and on the English Football League’s registered players list. In a brief statement the club said: "The club will review Lucas' position as and when he is released from custody and will make no further comment at this time." The forward has been with Mansfield since 2022 and is still shown on the club’s published squad for the season, although his contract is understood to have expired at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.

Court evidence presented at trial included head-cam footage from the cyclist that prosecutors said showed Akins pulling slowly out of a T-junction from Crossland Factory Lane onto Huddersfield Road and into the path of Daniel, who regularly cycled the route to and from work. Akins was driving a Mercedes G350 station wagon valued in reports at about £200,000 and had two children in the vehicle, then aged seven months and seven years, when the collision occurred.

Daniel died 10 days after the crash following what was described at trial as a catastrophic head injury. Akins pleaded guilty in April of this year to causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving. He received a 14-month custodial sentence and a two-year driving ban. Under current arrangements he would be eligible for release on licence after serving half his sentence.

During the legal proceedings earlier this year, Akins continued to play for Mansfield, including starting a match against Wigan Athletic hours after registering his initial guilty plea. The club provided support to Akins during the trial; manager Nigel Clough supplied a character reference to the court.

The family of the cyclist has spoken publicly about the impact of the collision. In a victim impact statement Daniel’s widow, Savannah, said she had endured "three years of hell" since her husband’s death and criticised the timing of the guilty plea. She added she did not wish the family of the driver to suffer the same misery, saying, "His wife and children shouldn't have to live the life we have since that day. We do not need any more lives to be destroyed from this."

Akins began his career through Huddersfield Town’s youth academy and made his first-team debut in 2007. His professional career has included spells at Northwich Victoria, Hamilton Academical, Partick Thistle, Tranmere Rovers, Stevenage, Burton Albion and, most recently, Mansfield Town.

Mansfield sit 11th in the League One table after three wins from their opening seven matches of the season. The club has said it will assess Akins’s position upon any release from custody and offered no further comment ahead of that review.