YORK CITY boss Steve Watson has admitted that captain Steve McNulty’s injury hasn’t progressed as the club hoped and could miss this weekend’s top-of-the-table clash with King’s Lynn.

McNulty, 36, has been out due to a hamstring injury since being taken off just eight minutes into last month’s draw with Gateshead.

For several weeks, Watson has singled out tomorrow’s game against King’s Lynn as the likely date for the skipper’s return, but conceded that he may not win the race to be fit in time for the game.

It’s an important match for unbeaten table-toppers York, who will lose spot at the top should they lose to third-placed King’s Lynn at Bootham Crescent.

“I don't think that Steve is exactly where we hoped he would be,” said Watson. “It's up to us to manage that and make a decision from that.

“I've always said that it would be crazy and really irresponsible to rush somebody back for the sake of one game because as I've said before, nothing is going to be won or lost this weekend.

“To do that would be to risk putting Steve back to square one. If we don't think he's right for this weekend, then we won't risk him.

“After this weekend, we've got the Buxton game which is on a 3G pitch so I wouldn't have risked for that one anyway.

“If he doesn't play on Saturday then we'll give him almost two weeks to prepare for Telford.”

Tom Allan could continue to feature for City in McNulty’s absence. He made his first appearance of the season at Irlam last weekend after playing on loan at Farsley Celtic for a month.

Watson added: "Tom has been in my thoughts for a long time, he's our player. Like Macaulay Langstaff last season, he’s been on a month’s loan.

“Like Macaulay, it’s done Tom a world of good. He’s back to us and he’s fully up to speed with the demands of this league.

“I’d have no problem with putting Tom in. I’m not going to say who’s coming in and out, because me and Micky are still making the final touches to our team.”

On the injury front, there’s better news for midfielder Kieran Green who could come back into the side after missing the weekend’s trip to Irlam due to an injury sustained at Darlington the week before.

“We had a good session on Thursday and we had 18 players training in total involved,” added the manager.

“Young Charlie (Jebson-King) played yesterday (for the U19s) and he'll come into my thinking as well.

“Kieran Green came back into training as well after his injury which is a good sign. We've got a good squad of players to choose from.

“Every single on them have been out on the field and not a single one of them has let me down as the results have proved. I know that I can rely on them all.

“It's a case of me and Micky getting our heads together and picking a team that we think can beat King's Lynn.

“It won't be anything against the lads that don't play. We'll be picking a team that we think can do a job on the day of the game.”

Kallum Griffiths and Dan Maguire look as if they will remain on the sidelines for the game, though the latter’s return seems closer than was originally thought by the York coaching staff.

“It’s been really disappointing for Kal because the injury came out of nowhere, he didn’t pick it up on the training ground or in a game,” said Watson.

“He’s got an ankle injury. I think he had a floating bone, which must have got stuck in his joint. He’s probably not noticed it until then.

“He’s had a minor operation on it. Hopefully, touch wood, nothing else has gone wrong with any other players.

“With Dan, it’s looking like the injury isn’t as bad as we previously thought for the next league game after King’s Lynn.

“We’ve played virtually all of the season without one of the best strikers in the league in Dan.

“Those are games where we’ve picked up points, some of them draws, but none of them bad draws, probably barring the Southport game because we didn’t perform well that way.

“If Dan had been fit, then he may have nicked a couple of goals for us to win us those games.

“We’ve played without our captain (McNulty) for a fair few games now too. We’ve done okay in covering for those players too.

“We’ve shown that we’ve got strength in depth in covering those positions and we’ve strengthened too in bringing in Kyle (McFarlane). We’ve got good options at the moment.”