DAVID STOCKDALE is set to miss York City’s Vanarama National League clash with Hartlepool United today, whilst either Michael Duckworth or Maziar Kouhyar could be on course for a return to the first team squad.

Stockdale suffered a blow to the head in York’s 2-1 victory over Chester in the Emirates FA Cup first round replay on Tuesday night, with the club monitoring a potential concussion for the experienced goalkeeper.

Assistant manager Neil Cox confirmed that Stockdale would be absent, but alluded that one from Duckworth or Kouhyar could be set for a return to the league.

“He’s [Stockdale] had a bang to the head and went through his first call of what he had to do, and everything is fine,” Cox confirmed.

“Will he be involved, we’re unsure, just because of his body and his back took a whack. He made some great saves and probably kept us in the game, so we’ll have a look and the manager has got a big decision to make, which is what he wants.

“He won’t be involved tomorrow, but everything else is fine.

“He’ll be fit for next week, it’s just ten days. I don’t understand the rules at the moment, the manager is sorting that with the physio, but he will be available for the cup and back in training next week.

“Everybody came through Tuesday night and everybody is fine.

“Everyone is raring to go and the manager has got to make a decision on whether we go back to the way we played or if we stay how we are, which is good for us.

“We can make big decisions, Will’s [Davies] come into the building and will Will start? Will he start on the bench?

“It’s good for everybody. It’s exciting for us as staff that we’ve got two people in and are trying to get more people in and build a bigger and better squad.

“The boys have really taken on what we’re giving.

“In the FA Cup it’s a little bit easier because you can have more subs, so we added them [Kouhyar and Duckworth].

“They’re still working hard. Will they be involved tomorrow [Saturday], one of them may be involved.

“We’ve trained on 3G today so we give the players more time to see if they can get through it.”

Cox also confirmed that all attention has turned to the National League despite York’s upcoming FA Cup clash with former winners Wigan Athletic in the coming weeks.

“We’ve not talked about it and the players won’t be talking about it. These are big games coming up against teams that are in and around us.

“If we have a good week then we could be up there in mid-table, but if we have a bad week then it’ll be a mess again.

“It’s focusing on Hartlepool, that’s all we’ve done. We’ve put the FA Cup win to bed and we’ll look forward to that again, but it’s more important to focus on the league.

“Three points tomorrow - we don’t look any further than that.

“That’s the way the manager has done it since I’ve worked with him. We don’t rest people to play against certain teams and we don’t do anything like that.

“We go with what we think is best to win the game.”