NEAL ARDLEY is keen to bring Will Smith back to York City - if he can recover from his knee injury. 

Smith spent two months with York from September until November, making nine appearances in a back five formation and impressing his manager Ardley after making the switch from Harrogate Town.

However, a knee injury forced Smith to return to his parent club to receive treatment, leaving City short at the back with Adam Crookes also injured.

Smith is making a swift recovery from his injury and is expected back into training with Harrogate tomorrow, with Ardley set to hold talks with the defender to discuss a potential loan move back to the football club.

“Will went back to Harrogate to get treatment there when he jarred his knee, he had an injection in his knee to settle it down," Ardley told the Press.

"He’s due to be out and has done a lot of work without training fully, he’ll be out training fully tomorrow.

"We’re going to have a phone call with him tomorrow afternoon, we haven’t just sat on our back sides whilst he’s been injured, we’ve looked at all of the options we’ve got in that position and we still think that Will will be the best option to take us through to January and come back to the club.

"If he’s injured that won’t be an option and we won’t make that decision, but if he makes it through Friday then we can take him on for another month to get us through the Christmas period."

Ardley isn't expecting City to be too busy for the remainder of 2023, with the York boss admitting that it was difficult to bring new players in during the festive period.

“There’s loads in the pipeline but the issue we have now is that it is two to three weeks until Christmas, it’s very difficult to get the players to move, especially if they aren’t local.

"They’re looking at our fixture list and Gateshead away when they’re down south and it’s very difficult.

"The quality of what is available isn’t really there, we’ve tried in one or two positions to get us through Christmas.

"At the moment, unless something crops up, we’re not expecting anything to happen.

"I think January will be the big month for us when it comes to trying to push forward and add some quality.

“At the moment, what we’ve got is what it’s going to be for the Christmas period. Sometimes you need one or two to come in, and then one or two might say that they need to go out and get some games.

"It’s hard because I think we’ve done quite well with the two we have signed permanently in George (Sykes-Kenworthy) and Will (Davies), they’ve been two players you look at and think that they will be really good in the future and for years to come.

"We need to make sure that anyone else that is permanent into the club has the same things said about them."