YORK City manager Michael Morton has opened up on the departure of midfielder Dan Pybus, who left the club on Tuesday afternoon for Dorking Wanderers.

Pybus exited York after allegations arose that the midfielder had refused to play in City’s 2-2 draw with Altrincham last week, after a suspected bust up with Morton.

Morton affirmed that he wanted players at the club that know what it means to play for York, and explained how Pybus’ move away came about so quickly.

“The discussion we had on the night of that game was when his head wasn’t in the right place, that’s fine and we made the decision not to play him.” Morton explained.

“He wasn’t feeling it, I’ve always had a good relationship with Dan and when I’ve been at the club he has played nearly every minute for me when he has been fit.

“But if his head isn’t in the right place and he’s not willing to work and give everything for the club, then there’s no point in him being here.

“He’s not been any bother since then, he’s been in the group and trained on his own and hasn’t been a problem at all, the main thing was that we got him out and he’s now gone to Dorking, who we play on the weekend.

“We’ve had a few chats about where we want to be.

“We’ve talked about the importance of playing for the club and what it means to everybody, just making sure that even when we don’t play very well that we’re gritty and wear the shirt with pride.”

“Last week we dropped our standards for spells of the games, we’re not always going to have perfect games and be brilliant, we know that the team is going to be up and down.

“But our work ethic and desire to do everything for the club is most important, last week we dropped our standards a little bit which we were disappointed with.

“We’ve had a few chats this week, and that’s not just me it’s the players as well, and we need to make sure that when we cross that line we’re playing for York City and that we do the club proud.”

Morton also opened up on Pybus’ departure, with the 25-year-old leaving the club on the same day of participating in training, before the City manager admitted he hoped his former player didn’t come back to haunt him on Saturday afternoon, as the Minstermen travel down to Dorking for their Vanarama National League fixture.

“It’s an interesting one, I’m not used to this scenario because I’m used to them not being able to play.

“Things needed to happen quick and things happened in literally a couple of hours, Dan was on the training pitch with us and then by the end of the day he was gone.

“I didn’t really get involved with it too much, it was the best thing for the player and the best thing for everybody.

“It’s just a strange one that he’s playing against us straight away.

“We know what Dan is about, he’s a good player and let’s just hope he doesn’t have a really good game against us on Saturday.”

Pybus also won’t be the final player to depart the club in the coming days, with ‘three or four’ players set to depart the club on loan after deals were agreed.

“There’s been three or four deals done with players moving out on loan.

“We don’t need players hovering around and not playing, Ryan (Whitley) is a really good example of that, he’s coming back and looks sharp.

“You can do what you want on the training pitch but if you’re not playing, then it’s really hard to throw you in there and we are trying to arrange a few more games behind-closed-doors.

“Every player in the squad needs to be playing competitive men’s football, and there’s been two or three have been signed off today.

“That should be announced, and we’ve been talking to a few players to strengthen the squad as well.”