YORK City boss Gary Mills is hopeful striker Jason Walker will recover from tonsilitis in time to face Exeter City at Bootham Crescent tomorrow (3pm).

Walker was withdrawn at half-time in the 3-0 victory over Burton Albion having opened the scoring from the penalty spot.

Although there was good news on Walker, Mills revealed that eight-goal leading marksman Ashley Chambers will be sidelined for up to six weeks with a torn stomach muscle.

The manager said: “Ash needs an operation on his stomach in the next few days and we will be without him for four to six weeks.”

Alex Rodman has deputised for Chambers in the last three matches and Mills has now decided that he would like to extend the Aldershot forward’s stay beyond tomorrow’s match, which signals the end of his loan spell from the Hampshire club.

“I needed to see a bit more from Alex and I got that on Tuesday in the Burton game after glimpses in previous matches,” the City boss said.

“We haven’t got an abundance of strikers available at the moment so I would like to try to keep him.

“I’m still waiting to speak to Dean Holdsworth to find out whether he will let him come back though and we might have no choice in the matter.”

The Minstermen will be tackling an Exeter team targeting a fifth successive away win tomorrow, although the visitors will be without suspended 16-goal top scorer Jamie Cureton.

But Mills is paying little attention to either of those two considerations and concentrating solely on the performance of his own team.

He said: “Their away form is up there with Gillingham so they will be confident, but they are missing their leading scorer who got sent off and deservedly so from what I’ve seen.

“All of that doesn’t change anything though, because what happens is down to us.

“In our last two matches, we’ve played against two other sides pushing for the play-offs and we’ve been better than them. We’ve got a lot to prove still though because our League position does not say that.”

City have rearranged their postponed home clash with table-topping Gillingham for Tuesday, February 12.

Meanwhile, former City striker Richard Brodie today joined Blue Square Bet Premier side Grimsby Town on loan from Crawley until the end of the season.

It is believed that Brodie’s representatives had been in contact with the Minstermen to declare their client’s interest in a second spell at Bootham Crescent.

Mills admitted yesterday afternoon that he was mulling over whether to bring him back to the club, but he joined the Mariners this morning.

Brodie scored 37 goals in his last full season for City in 2009/10 before joining Crawley on deadline day the following August.

He has since been farmed out to Fleetwood and Morecambe, where he has netted six times in 27 outings this term.

The former Newcastle Benfield Bay Plastics striker has scored in each of his last two matches against Mills’ Minstermen for Fleetwood and Morecambe.

“Richard is a striker who seems to have scored every time my teams have played against him,” Mills said.