YORK City manager Sam Collins could reshuffle his squad for tomorrow night's home game with Leamington as a sickness bug continues to claim victims at Bootham Crescent.

Collins praised his team for grinding out a 2-0 home victory over FC United of Manchester at the weekend despite having “five or six players” who were feeling under the weather.

But he could be forced into changing a winning team as he ponders the impact on energy levels the illness will be having on his team.

“I’m hoping a few people will be feeling better, but we’ve had a couple more who have picked up the bug,” the City chief revealed. “They have all been told by the physio what they need to do, though, to get it out of their systems and we’re hoping everybody can be available.

“Kallum Griffiths has probably been the worst of the lot and, even though he felt a bit better on Sunday, he took another turn for the worse and we’ve tried to separate him from the rest of the group. Alex Bray and Jordan Burrow have been bad too.

“When I pick the team, I’ll be thinking who can provide us with freshness and intensity, because we look a lot better as a team if we have those two qualities. I didn’t freshen up the team against Altrincham when, in hindsight, I probably should have done after a midweek game and it’s something I will do now if I feel it’s necessary.

“It might mean players who haven’t been involved recently going out to play, but we have a big squad, and everybody has been involved in training just in case. There are three or four who haven’t been in the squad, but they are good lads and haven’t spat their dummies out so far.

“They’ve trained well, and you need to be able to rely on people to go about their jobs in the right way.”

Left-back Sean Newton remains doubtful after being withdrawn at half-time against FC United with a strain.

Collins is unwilling to risk further damage with muscular injuries and Newton’s replacement at the weekend – Joe Ironside – is in line to start, with the City boss hoping he can rediscover the form that saw him score more than 20 goals in each of his last two campaigns at National League North level.

The on-loan Kidderminster forward is yet to net in three outings for the Minstermen and Collins reasoned: “Joe probably needs a goal.

“I think he’s a confidence player and that comes from getting goals. All strikers are the same – they are selfish and want to score.

“The good thing is he’s working hard and is doing extra training because he wants to improve and, hopefully, when the next chance comes his way, he’ll take it. Before he scored in the FA Cup, Jordan Burrow also looked like a player in need of a goal but, since then, he’s never looked back and a good friend of mine – Greg Abbott - came to our game against Chester and thought he should be playing at League One level.”

Having seen his side recover from a poor first 45 minutes against FC United to control large periods of the second half, Collins is also now calling on his team to make their fitness levels count against a second part-time visiting team in the space of four days.

“I know somebody who was at Bristol Rovers when they went down to the Conference and their manager Darrell Clarke used to repeatedly say to them make sure you stay in the game up to the hour mark, because he felt, after that, was when his team’s fitness levels should tell,” Collins pointed out. “That should be the same with us when we are playing part-time teams.”

Collins added that he wants Adriano Moke to carry on helping set his team’s tempo, saying: “He wasn’t somebody I really knew about before I came to the club, but he has very good ability and lots of energy.

“Maybe the fact that he doesn’t score enough has meant that he hasn’t played higher up, but we will keep working with him and I think we’ve got him in a good place mentally, as he’s coming in with a smile on his face. I feel he’s put a consistent run of form together and, when he drives us forward with intensity as he did on that left wing in the second half against FC United, he’s a big part of what we are trying to do.”