Skipper Tony Barras and goalkeeper Mark Samways are to undergo major operations in the next few days.

The York City duo finished the run-in to last season out of action - Barras stricken by a mystery hip injury, Samways hit by a recurrence of the knee problem that initially curtailed his senior City run last November.

Centre-back Barras has been dogged off and on over the last three seasons by the hip injury leading to fears before the end of last term that any corrective major surgery could put him out of action for as long as eight months.

But the latest in a series of scans have located a damaged area in the hip.

Now the City captain is off to Cambridge, where one of the few men in the country adept at the hip procedure is based.

And the signs are that the central defender will be fit in time for the start of the 1998-99 season, which starts in less than three months' time.

Said City boss Alan Little: "The scan has shown a hot-spot in the hip so Barras will have an exploratory operation."It now doesn't look as serious as was first thought and all the signs are very hopeful. We are expecting he will be back for the start of the season."

Samways' operation is to tackle the knee injury aggravated by collisions with rival players at Blackpool in November and then in a reserves' match last month.

Little, meanwhile, hailed the arrival of the newest boss on the Second Division block - his elder brother Brian Little, who has just taken charge of relegated Stoke City.

it will be the first time that the Little brothers will come into direct opposition as manager to manager.

Their only previous direct clash was when York's boss was youth team manager at Hartlepool, his 44-year-old brother holding the same post at Middlesbrough back in the mid-1980s.

Said Little junior: "I am looking forward to it. I always said when we did well in the Coca-Cola Cup that I would have liked us to play Aston Villa (Brian's former club).

"Now we are going to come up against each other as manager v manager. It will be interesting to say the least."

The Bootham Crescent boss believed his sibling would have no difficulty adjusting to life in the lower leagues, adding that his arrival would increase claims that Stoke City would be favourites to return to the First Division.

"He has got a job on his hands as there is reportedly no money at Stoke and they are well in the red. But they do have a big squad and he knows the game at this level after his time at Darlington."

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