MICHAEL MORTON has confirmed that Lenell John-Lewis is back available for selection ahead of York City’s clash with Altrincham on Tuesday night, whilst also explaining the reasoning behind Mitch Hancox’s absence.

John-Lewis was unavailable for York’s 1-0 defeat to Kidderminster Harriers on Saturday, whilst Hancox is yet to make his first appearance of the season despite being fit.

Morton explained the reason behind Hancox’s absence, as well as confirming that a number of players could be set to leave the club on loan, with Morton considering looking towards the loan market for potential incomings.

“Everybody is in, we had a couple who was sort of struggling a little bit this morning so we need to see how they recover after the session this morning.” Morton confirmed.

“Lenny is back as well, the only one who is still struggling slightly is Ducky [Michael Duckworth] so we need to assess that and see where he is at moving forward.

“With Mitch everybody knows what Mitch offers.

“We could put him in at left-back, but it’s not a position he wants to play and he’ll always fill in and help the team.

“If you’re looking at the ten roles, we have discussions all the time and the two teams we have played have played a high line, so you’re looking for technicians to try and get through.

“Mitch will be the first to say it, his main attributes are getting in beyond the number nine, getting in and around the box and he’s really aggressive out-of-possession.

“But I wouldn’t say his main attributes are trying to play around a team and to break a team down, that doesn’t mean that Mitch isn’t going to play, we just have to try and pick and choose the right times for when we use him.

“Like I said to him, if players aren’t performing in that position then it is up to him to get himself into that position and show that he can do the type of stuff we want him to do.

“I speak to all of the players all of the time and I’ve always got time for all of them, my door is always open and there’s no bad eggs in the team.

“Players are going to be happy sometimes and some aren’t, and when we’re not getting results they have the right to knock on my door and we’ve got to listen to what they say.

“We’ve got a job to do and we’ve got to do what’s right for each game.”

Morton also confirmed that outgoings are likely, with the York manager set to assess whether his side require some loan signings.

“There are a few that we want to get out on loan and get some minutes.

“We don’t want players sat here, we want players getting out and getting minutes and playing regularly, we get the compacts for the players so we watch all of the games and short version for each player, so you know whether they are performing and playing well.

“We’ll assess how the next couple of weeks go and see what it is, we have got a strategy but we want to give everybody an opportunity to play and perform, but if we do feel the balance isn’t right or we need to bring something else into certain areas, then we have got that backing.

“We don’t want to just bring players in that aren’t going to value the first-team.

“When the chairman came in and we had a chat, we had to move quite quickly because you’re going to make your mistakes and you need to give players time to see where they are at.

“Now we need to be a little bit more calculated so that if we do go for anyone then they have the right personnel and can impact the team straight away.”