Simon Lappin return ruled out by York City

The 34-year-old, ex-Norwich playmaker shone during a nine-game spell for the Minstermen last season when he forged a strong partnership with current skipper Sean Newton, but his season was cut short in February by a ruptured Achilles.

City have now lost Adriano Moke for up to two months with a pulled thigh muscle, with Jassem Sukar and Simon Heslop both struggling in the team’s anchoring midfield role during the former’s absence.

Lappin would be an ideal replacement for Moke, but Mills believes such a move wouldn’t be an option due to financial, geographical and fitness implications.

“I don’t think for one minute that will be a possibility,” Mills explained of a potential Lappin return. “He lives a long way away and I think it would be a no-no financially.

“I know he would like to come back because he was disappointed by what happened to him and the club last season, but I’ve not heard from him and he might be on a beach in Majorca. He will also still be struggling with his Achilles and, no disrespect to him because for his age he is very fit, but that will be difficult because he’d had a year out of the game just before coming to us.

“I wish him well, though, because he was doing well for us and I was disappointed to lose him.”

Mills is also hoping Moke can return ahead of schedule, joking: “He’s not got the biggest muscles, so I’m hoping they recover quicker than normal people’s.”

Attacker Louis Almond, meanwhile, is set to be missing again with the bruised rib injury that saw him sidelined for Monday’s 2-0 home defeat to FC United of Manchester.

He has joined long-term casualties Moke, Matt Fry and Clovis Kamdjo in the treatment room, but Mills is not at the point where he is considering approaching chairman Jason McGill for permission to bolster his squad.

“I don’t feel I need to strengthen going into the Chorley game, so we’ll see how we go with injuries and form,” Mills reasoned. “It’s frustrating with Louis because we’re going from game to game wondering whether he will be available or not.

“I think this weekend will come too soon although, sometimes, you have to test your pain threshold and play with a couple of painkillers.”

Heslop will start on Saturday at Chorley, despite incurring the wrath of his manager following a “silly” red card in the bank-holiday defeat.

His one-match suspension will not be served until Tuesday’s trip to Spennymoor, with Mills adding: “He wasn’t having one of his better games on Monday, even in the first half and we thought about making changes with that in mind, but then he got sent off.

“He will start against Chorley, though, because he had been playing good football in the two games prior to Monday.”

Mills has now challenged his eighth-placed team to turn an average start to the campaign into a good one by taking maximum points from their next two matches.

“We had a couple of days off to get over the disappointment of Monday and have come back ready physically and mentally for the next one,” he declared. “After the game, I didn’t feel over-concerned or upset, because it just boiled down to us not taking our chances and the game changing when Hessie was sent off.

It was more a case of frustration and disappointment. If we had beaten FC United, our start to the season would have been classed as a good one.

“By losing, some would say it’s become an average start. If we win the next two games, then we’ll be able to say we’ve had a good start again.

“If we don’t, then it won’t have been particularly good and I understand the fans’ frustrations, because of who we are and where we are. They expect us to be up there and we should be, but it’s a long season.”

Last term’s play-off finalists Chorley, meanwhile, currently lie in the relegation zone, with Mills pointing out: “They might still be feeling a bit of disappointment from missing out on promotion in extra-time of the play-off final because they’ve not had the best of starts, but they don’t concede many and are hard to break down.”