ADAM HINSHELWOOD provided a positive update on the fitness of Lenell John-Lewis and Darragh O’Connor, and explained Dan Batty’s lack of minutes in York City’s previous two fixtures.

Both John-Lewis and O’Connor were early season casualties, with neither player expected to be back available for Hinshelwood prior to the New Year.

Hinshelwood confirmed that both are progressing well, even with O’Connor suffering a small setback, with the City boss expecting their absences to continue for another four weeks.

The York manager also explained why Batty was an unused substitute in City’s 3-0 defeat to Altrincham in midweek, and was used as a late substitute in the 4-0 victory over Yeovil Town the Saturday prior, admitting that it was both a tactical and fitness decision from Hinshelwood.

“Len’s back running with his boots on and is showing really good progress, which is good,” Hinshelwood confirmed.

As a manager, I think that if you were going to go back 10 years and see someone running like Len is, you want them back available for the next week.

“But obviously we are relying a little bit more on the research and he’s got to work through a protocol.

“He’s running well, but there’s still a lot of hurdles for him to come through before he’s available for selection.

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“I was having a conversation with him the other day, and he was saying that if it was ten years ago and he was running like this, I’d say I’d be available to play.

“Again, it’s about Len coming back and staying back, not coming back for one game and being back in the treatment room.

“We’ve got to make sure he gets through all the right protocol.

“He’s probably four weeks off, even if he is running so well.

“Darragh had a little reaction and is now just building back up through it again.

“He’s still probably similar to Len, probably another four weeks.

“It’s great to see them back out on the grass and getting their boots on, as a player I know too well what it’s like to be injured.

“When you put your boots on and get back out on the grass, it does make you feel a bit more like a footballer again.

“I’m sure that for their mental state, it will do them the world of good.

“With Dan as well, I always like to monitor his load and sometimes you’ve got to take that out of his hands.

“I know that if you were to ask Dan, he would say that he is fit for every minute, I know they all would.

“He’s one of them that we’ve got to manage over a 46 game season and try to get him out there, as fit and ready as he can be for as many as we can.

“In the last two games we sort of changed shape a little bit and went with one holding midfield player, then Joe Felix has rolled in from right-back to make up the second holding midfielder.

Thierry Latty-Fairweather is ineligible to play against York City. (Image: Tom Poole) “It’s something we’ve looked at, and I like Joe when he does that job for us, and it only leaves one holding midfield player.

“Batts and Hunty [Alex Hunt], we’ve got two players who do that job really well.

“A slight tweak to the formation and managing his load really, but he is an unbelievable player.

“I think that at the start of the season he was in the Team of the Week for most week’s, so he’s got to get back to that form and I’m sure he will get there.”

Other than the long-term absentees, Hinshelwood confirmed that there would be no fresh injury concerns for York’s match with Maidenhead United on Saturday at the LNER Community Stadium (3pm).

On-loan Thierry Latty-Fairweather also will not be allowed to feature against his parent club York on Saturday, having nailed down a regular spot with Maidenhead.

“Everyone is fit and available, a couple of the lads like Ty [Sinclair] and Marv [Armstrong] will think they’re not injured and want to start every minute, but they have been nursing injuries.

“It’s like I said to them, we’re trying to get a squad of players through a 46 game season with cup games as well.

“We’ve got to take that into account as well, [David] Ajiboye has come to us and has played a lot of minutes as well.

“There’s a lot of factors that you’ve got to take into account, but everyone should be fit, available and ready to go.

“Yeah I have [got big decisions to make]. When you’re winning and make those decisions, it’s a lot to easier to have those conversations with the players, when you’ve lost a game everyone feels like it’s their opportunity to play.

“It’s difficult, we’ve got a good squad, we’ve probably got 20 outfield players that think they can start and contribute and you can only select 10.

“There’s 10 outfield players that are going to be disappointed, it’s hard but you go with what you can see in training and how they have been performing in recent matches to pick the right team that can win games.

“Thierry’s not allowed to play, no. I try to leave it alone, I’ll probably have a good chat with him after and speak in depth with their management staff and coaching staff on how he’s doing, how they’ve found him as a character as well.

“We’ll have a good chat after the game, but we won’t speak too much before.”