BRADFORD (Park Avenue) had just nine available outfield players for the postponed clash with York City on Sunday, manager Mark Bower has revealed.

York were due to play Bradford twice in the Vanarama National League North over the festive period but both fixtures were delayed.

City's trip to the Horsfall Stadium was postponed due to the adverse weather conditions while a "Covid event" at Park Avenue has forced the match at the LNER Community Stadium to be played at a later date.

Bradford boss Bower has revealed just how deep the coronavirus problem ran for his side in the build-up to the weekend.

He said: "We had bad news come through with Covid on Friday night and Saturday morning, and it meant that we'd have been left with nine outfield players, our two goalkeepers, and one member of coaching staff for the game against York.

"We'd played through up until then, and we had a couple of lads missing due to Covid for our draw at Guiseley last week.

"We wanted to play as many games as we could in this little period, as there's so many to accommodate and it's not ideal having a load of midweek games later in the season due to call-offs now.

"But with Covid, and injuries, you just have to accept that there'll be times when we're understrength later in the season, and we'll probably play against teams who have a few missing too.

"We'll all have to deal with it, and we don't want a fixture pile-up, so as long as we have 14 fit players (as the National League rules require for the game to go ahead), then we'll fulfil our games."