RYAN Jarvis still has a big role to play at York City if he returns to Bootham Crescent in the same shape he started last season.

The 27-year-old forward only started one match for the Minstermen following the 1-0 home win over Northampton on New Year's Day, which also represented the last time he made the scoresheet in 2013/14.

Following the medial ligament injury that saw top scorer Wes Fletcher sidelined from mid-March, Michael Coulson, Ryan Bowman and Calvin Andrew were all selected ahead of Jarvis during the run-in to the end of the campaign despite the latter being available for all but one squad from the end of February onwards.

City boss Nigel Worthington, however, felt Jarvis did not fully recover from the knee, hamstring and ankle injuries that caused him to miss three weeks of training and game time at the turn of the year.

He is now hoping the ex-Norwich and Torquay striker can recapture the form he displayed on his arrival in North Yorkshire last summer.

Back then, Jarvis was the only City player to score in the first seven matches of the campaign and netted six times in his first 11 outings for the club by early October.

He could only add three more to that tally, though, with his involvement in the Sky Bet League Two play-off, semi-final against Fleetwood limited to a 69th-minute outing during the second leg at Highbury.

In a dozen seasons as a professional, Jarvis has only managed more than 30 league starts in a single campaign once - for Leyton Orient in 2009/10 - but Worthington wants him to return for training at the end of June in top condition.

The Minstemen chief said: "After the good start Jarv had, the three injuries he picked up seemed to effect him physically. He did not fall out of favour as such but he always seemed to be playing catch-up during the second half of the season.

"Hopefully, he can stay fit from now on and prove he can start the next season like he did the last one with a good pre-season behind him."

Like Jarvis, 20-year-old midfielder Tom Platt still has another year left to run on his contract at Bootham Crescent, having played a minor role at the club since the turn of the year.

Despite kicking off the first seven games of the campaign, Platt made his last start on January 4 at home to Dagenham and only managed another five substitute outings, amounting to seven minutes of football, during the remainder of the campaign.

Worthington, though, also believes the former youth-team skipper possesses the character to still be a success with the Minstermen.

"Young Tom found it tough going this season," Worthington confessed. "He had a spell in the team at the start of the season but he still has the right temperament.

"Hopefully, next season, he will bounce forward again because, with the work he puts in and his attitude, he is capable of doing that."