Harrogate Town's Will Smith returns to York City on one-month loan

The defender first joined the Minstermen from their Sky Bet League Two neighbours at the end of September, making 13 appearances as part of a back five formation before suffering a knee injury.

But, having returned to his parent club for his rehabilitation, Smith is now back at the LNER Community Stadium ahead of Saturday’s trip to Rochdale.

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Though City have recruited youngster Luke Daley on loan from Sky Bet Championship strugglers Huddersfield Town, they have seen their defenders blighted by injury.

And with a busy festive period that sees the visit of Ebbsfleet United preceding back-to-back clashes with high-flying Gateshead, boss Neal Ardley confirmed to The Press last week that he had been keen to see Smith return.

“Will went back to Harrogate to get treatment there when he jarred his knee," Ardley explained of Smith’s injury. "He had an injection in his knee to settle it down.

“He’s due to be out and has done a lot of work without training fully, he’ll be out training fully tomorrow (last Friday).

“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.”