ADAM HINSHELWOOD has confirmed that York City defender Adam Crookes will be ruled out of action for up to six weeks with a hamstring injury.

Crookes’ absence was notable from Hinshelwood’s first match in charge on Saturday, as York fell to a 3-2 defeat to Wealdstone at the LNER Community Stadium, subsequently dropping into the Vanarama National League relegation zone.

Hinshelwood has now confirmed that Crookes is expected to be out of action for up to six weeks after an initial scan, whilst a return is on the cards for vice-captain Ryan Fallowfield in tomorrow night’s match with AFC Fylde at the LNER Community Stadium (7.45pm).

“You can see the injury list we’ve still got, Crookesy will be six weeks or so,” Hinshelwood confirmed.

“It’s his hamstring, he’s had a scan and it’s been reported back but he’s progressing well.

“He’s a fit lad, looks after himself and we’re hoping it won’t be the full six weeks with a bit of luck, and we will have him back a little bit forward hopefully.

“Ryan Fallowfield is available after last weekend took a shining on him, he’s back available for us.

“We have to look at the load of players that haven’t been in the side for a while when they have come in, we’ve played on two heavy pitches back to back and all that might entail.

“Ryan’s back and there are no other fresh injury concerns from the weekend.”

Hinshelwood also discussed his decision to play talisman Dipo Akinyemi in a wider position at the weekend, with the newly-appointed City boss impressed by the striker in his early impressions.

Hinshelwood explained: “I thought he was a real handful out there, from the forward line he was the one creating the most threats.

“He’s good in one on one situations and can cut in a little bit more on his right foot to open up the goal a little bit more, we went down the outside really well.

“We’d seen videos and things like that, but the first viewing we’ve had of him down there I thought he had done really well out there.

“Maybe we can get players into the box when he’s in a one on one situation to load it up a bit more, there were a few times when it got flashed across in the first-half and Charlie Allen was really unlucky to hit the post when he did.

“We’ve got to be finishing those chances because that would have settled everyone down having a two goal cushion.

“The ideal situation would be to have two Dipo’s! Even when he did go down the middle, we conceded three relatively quick goals and that affected the confidence a little bit, we had to change to try and get back into the game with two up top and Billy just in behind.

“It gave us a little bit of a foothold in the game when we managed to get the second goal, there was a little bit more belief again.

“Dipo will be a real good player again for us, he had a really good work rate on Saturday.”

Hinshelwood also addressed rumours that Scott Barrow could be returning to the club from his loan spell with Darlington, with the City boss confirming that conversations were ongoing.

“It’s something we’re going to look at, to get them back in the building and see what they are about.

“It would be foolish not to do that, at the same time there is no point bringing them back if we feel that they’re not going to feature as well.

“It’s conversations that are ongoing, with the games being so quick from Saturday to Tuesday we just wanted to focus on what we’ve got, but moving forward we’ve got to look at everyone we have got at our disposal.”