YORK City Knights star Matty Marsh has been stood down for two weeks on precautionary medical advice.

Marsh played all 80 minutes of York’s 24-16 defeat at home to Barrow Raiders last weekend, with head coach James Ford later revealing that the club’s medical staff had a “minor concern” over the full-back.

The Knights have now revealed that Marsh will take a break from the side, seeing him miss Monday night’s trip to Halifax Panthers (7.45pm) and most likely the home match with Batley Bulldogs seven days later (7.45pm).

While Ford was not in a position to confirm the nature of Marsh’s issue, he confirmed: “He won’t be available this week. He’s been stood down for a couple of weeks as a precaution.

“That was probably why we were a bit clunky during the (Barrow) game because Marshy felt a bit under the weather and he’s a key attacking player for us at full-back.

“He had some symptoms after the game and the doctors wanted to run some tests on him to make sure he’s ok. The last I’ve heard is that we’ve put in a request to get these tests done.

“I’ve asked the doctor if we can speed those up because Marshy’s a key player for us.

“But ultimately he can’t play until he’s had the tests done. Even I’ve got to concede that there’s bigger things in the world than rugby league.

“We’re very hopeful that will Marshy back out in a couple of weeks.”

Ford confirmed that 18-year-old Myles Harrison, the other out-and-out full-back in York’s squad, will feature in the York 17 against Halifax, although that “doesn’t necessarily mean he’ll start.”

Having seen Levi Edwards, Brendan O’Hagan and Ronan Michael return over the past fortnight, York appear to be in a good spot elsewhere on the injury front.

Ford reported “a couple of bumps and bruises” in his camp, but quickly added: “I don’t want to say who they are because I’m sure Simon Grix (Halifax head coach) will be trying to find out our team, as we’re trying to find out their team.

“We’ve got an extra day, so we’ll manage their load through the week. We’ll be picking from a fairly strong team, minus Marshy.”