Andrew Davies will be forced to sit out the start of City’s pre-season programme.

The centre half has felt a recurrence of the calf problem that has been troubling him on and off.

Davies is undergoing treatment and will miss the opening friendly at Guiseley tomorrow. He is also unlikely to feature in City’s two matches during next week’s Ireland tour.

Phil Parkinson said: “He’s had another injection in it and we’re expecting everything to settle down. He has been working hard but the Guiseley game is too soon.” Long-term casualty Luke Oliver reported a slight issue with his hip and also had an injection two days ago. But he was not expected to be involved in the early games anyway as he continues the rehabilitation from nine months on the sidelines.

Guiseley are anticipating a bumper crowd in excess of 2,000 to descend on Nethermoor for City’s traditional trip to their Conference North neighbours.

But Parkinson sees the match purely as an extension of the fitness work they have been doing since returning to pre-season 11 days ago.

The City boss said: “We’re going to use it as a training exercise. We’re going to play two different teams of 11 for 45 minutes each.

“It’s a bit different to when we went to Guiseley last time when we’d already had three games under our belt. We were a little bit further in our development.

“This year it’s earlier and we’ll treat it similarly to the Tadcaster game last year.

“The lads are in good shape, training well and progressing nicely and they are looking forward to it.

“We had a practice match among ourselves at the ground on Wednesday and that went well.

“We played three periods of 15 minutes but that gave them a taste of it. They are getting there and we’re pleased with how things are going.”

Winger Jon-Paul McGovern should be among the faces on display as he looks to earn a deal following his exit from Carlisle.

City jet out to Dublin on Sunday and Parkinson will finalise the travelling squad after the Guiseley game.

He said: “We’re going to give everybody who’s here a game and a few of the youngsters will get a chance as well. Then we’ll work out who is going to Ireland.

“I’ve pretty much decided who we’ll be taking but there are always one or two places open for others to impress.”