YORK City chief Terry Dolan was today sweating on the fitness of central defender Matt Hocking before naming his starting line-up for tonight's clash with Bristol Rovers.

As reported yesterday , with skipper Chris Brass suspended Dolan has already called up 16-year-old schoolboy Lee Grant into tonight's squad.

Chris Smith, an unused substitute on Saturday, will more than likely come into the starting line-up for Brass with central defender Grant, a pupil at Huntington School, named among the substitutes.

But it has emerged young rookie defender Stuart Wise will be joining Brass on the sidelines tonight.

The trainee suffered a badly blackened eye in the 3-1 win over Mansfield and will be rested in the hope he will be fit for Saturday's trip to Scunthorpe.

With Wise missing that leaves the door open for Jon Parkin to revert to the defence or for Hocking, who has been ruled out of City's last four outings with a stomach strain, to return.

The former Hull defender returned to training yesterday and providing he shows no reaction will be recalled to the squad for the clash with the Pirates.

Fortunately for the Minstermen, Scott Jones, who has formed a formidable defensive barrier alongside Wise and Brass in recent games, will be allowed to line-up against his permanent employers.

Jones is currently on loan at City from Bristol Rovers but manager Terry Dolan said no clause had been inserted into the deal which would bar the former Barnsley defender from playing.

As reported by the Evening Press, Grant, who only turned 16 in December, will be one of the youngest players to play a first-team game for City if he makes it on to the field tonight.

"Lee is going to be joining us in July on a three-year scholarship," explained Dolan,

"He is a left-sided centre-back and he has played a full game in the reserves already this season and quite a few for the juniors.

"He is somebody with think a lot of."

The youngest player ever to appear in a competitive match for City is Reg Stockill.

Stockill, who went on to play for Arsenal, was 15 years and 281 days when he lined-up in City's first Football League match, a 2-0 win over Wigan Borough in 1929, when he also had the honour of scoring the club's first Football League goal.

If Grant, who has been allocated squad number 35, gets on tomorrow, he will be 16 years and 107 days - just 191 days older.

Updated: 09:10 Tuesday, April 16, 2002