YORK Knights will have only the ‘bare bones’ of their squad to select from for tomorrow’s AB Sundecks 1895 Cup semi final against Sheffield Eagles (3pm).

By contrast, Eagles boss Mark Aston has a near-full complement available for the tie - including ex-Knights Matty Marsh, Ben Jones-Bishop and James Glover.

Just 80 minutes now stand between either side and a trip to Wembley to face Bradford Bulls or Wakefield Trinity on June 8.

Italian prop Brenden Santi is a welcome return to Andrew Henderson's preliminary squad from a calf strain that has kept him sidelined since the sides' Betfred Challenge Cup tie in late February.

York Press: Santi limped off with a calf injury in the sides' Betfred Challenge Cup clash in late February.Santi limped off with a calf injury in the sides' Betfred Challenge Cup clash in late February. (Image: Craig Hawkhead Photography)

However, James Cunningham (hamstring), Jesse Dee (bicep) and long-term absentees Levi Edwards and Bailey Antrobus (both ACL) all remain on the treatment table, with more names now added to that list after last weekend’s bruising 36-16 defeat to Whitehaven.

Both Myles Harrison and Harvey Reynolds have dropped out of the Knights' preliminary squad.

The Knights are unable to dip into the loan market ahead of tomorrow’s fixture, but despite that, Henderson admits there is the potential for changes to his starting line-up against the Eagles.

“We’ve taken a few more knocks in that game on the weekend unfortunately,” he told BBC Radio York.

I’m not going to lie, we are down to the bare bones. We’re pretty busted at the moment.

“We can’t bring anybody in this week on loan with it being the semi-final stage of the competition, we’ve already made those enquiries. So we’ve got what we’ve got.

“Ultimately, yes, if we have some depth in certain positions we can certainly look at making some changes based on performance factors, that’s a decision that I’ll have to make as a coach.

“But ultimately, there’s not a lot that we can really change in terms of personnel because we just don’t have the troops and the people in those positions underneath to come in and replace them.

“We’ve just got what we’ve got.”

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The head coach does however seem likely to be able to call upon captain Liam Harris, despite the half-back being withdrawn during the second half of last weekend’s defeat with a shoulder injury.

Harris did attempt to play on, having taken a knock during the first half, but Henderson admitted his substitution, and Ata Hingano’s subsequent shift into the halves, was to prevent any further damage.

“He took a bit of a knock there,” Henderson continued.

“But we’re hopeful that he will be alright to go this week.

Despite being named in the Knights' preliminary squad, Oli Field remains a doubt amid an ongoing respiratory issue.

He has played eight times this season, but has not featured since being withdrawn during the first half of their 50-6 defeat to Wakefield Trinity on April 14.

Henderson explained: “It’s a really strange one with Oli Field. We’ve had some strange illnesses or injuries this year to contend with.

“With Oli, he’s been dealing with a respiratory sort of issue. He does suffer from asthma but something’s happened there and he’s off to see a specialist soon.

“We just need to figure out exactly what it is and how we can prevent it from coming on going forward, and things like that.

“It’s definitely a unique condition to deal with, and we don’t know enough information about it. What we do know is when he’s being pushed to a certain level of exertion, it’s causing him problems - hence why we’ve had to pull him for the last few weeks. 

“He’s been struggling in some of the games and we’ve been trying to figure out why that was.

“We’ve done a little bit of investigation and found out a few bits of information, and now we feel it was best to say ‘listen, let’s find out and try and get him right and find out exactly what’s going on’.

“Unfortunately for Oli, at the moment, that’s where we’re at.”