CALLUM Howe will not have the opportunity to try and stop his brother from scoring this evening, as the centre-back continues to recover from a concussion injury.
Howe was a surprise absentee from Saturday’s 1-1 draw for York City against Forest Green Rovers, seeing Ash Palmer come into Stuart Maynard’s side for the first time this season.
Maynard confirmed post-match that Howe had shown symptoms of a potential concussion, with the club taking precautionary measures to not include him in the matchday squad.
It comes at a disappointing time for Howe, who would have had the opportunity to face his brother, Declan, who joined Wednesday’s visitors to the LNER Community Stadium, Scunthorpe United, in the Summer.
Declan had impressed whilst at Gainsborough Trinity last campaign, and had a potential chance to face City brother Callum when York drew the Northern Premier League side in the Isuzu FA Trophy.
However, Callum was left out of the York squad on that day, whilst Declan went on to score the winning goal to dump City out of the Trophy.
York Assistant Manager Joao Alves confirmed that the captain is not expected to be back yet, saying: “Callum is still going through it, I think he’s had some of the symptoms over the weekend.
“We’re taking it kind of day by day to see when we can expect to see him return to training.
“He was there today and was in really good spirits, which is great to see, all of the lads love him and respond to him, so it’s brilliant to see him around it.
“We think that we’re aiming for the FA Cup weekend [Saturday, October 11], or the week after for him to start training.
“We’ll take it day by day and see where that takes us. I believe it’s 14 [days], but I’m not too sure.
“It’s a real shame, I know he’s really up for the game.
“He was up for the game on Saturday, he never wants to miss anything out.
“That’s football, that’s how it goes, but luckily for us we had Ash Palmer who is a really good player that was ready to step in.
“He did really well.”
Alves, alongside manager Maynard, has helped steer York through a difficult block of fixtures that has included matches against Carlisle United and Forest Green, before games against Scunthorpe and Hartlepool United, all within the space of an 11 day period.
Changes have therefore been required with the heavy load extracted onto the group, with Alves glad to have options to choose from depending on who their opponent will be
“Everyone else is fit and available, apart from Callum Howe,” the assistant explained.
“We always want to take the three points, and I think that sometimes it can be tricky to look too far ahead.
“You can very quickly be in a situation where you don’t take any points that are there to be took, so we’re quite happy with the intensity of the players that have played.
“If we feel that the players have dipped in intensity, then we certainly can make a decision on that.
“We’re in a pretty good place where we can decide and pick and choose for whoever we think is best for the game, and then take it from there.”
