MICHAEL Collins insists Matt Kilgallon’s continued absence from his City plans is not an issue for him or the defender.

The club’s player of the year is yet to be involved in a squad this season having been overlooked for the captaincy.

Collins made five changes for Tuesday’s Carabao Cup defeat at Macclesfield and brought in Ryan McGowan at centre half. But Kilgallon did not even make the bench, with Nathaniel Knight-Percival preferred as the defensive back-up.

There are suggestions that Kilgallon could be a target for a Scottish club before their window shuts at the end of the month. Rangers were thought to have been monitoring his situation earlier in the summer.

But Collins reiterated his stance that the 35-year-old still has a part to play for his City side, despite not kicking a ball so far.

The Bantams head coach said: “It’s exactly as it was before. There’s competition for places and there are other people who are ahead of him in the pecking order at the moment.

“If Matt continues to do what I see from him every day in training, as I’ve said before the door’s never shut.

“He continues to work as I expect him to. We have conversations and there’s certainly nothing untoward going on.

“At this moment, we’re approaching it with a different angle with regards to the players who are in the team.

“But football changes very quickly and as long as he keeps working hard in training like he has done, then he can find himself back in the fold.”

Kilgallon’s situation has become a hot topic with fans who feel the club are trying to push him out following the exit of several other senior professionals. But Collins is adamant there is no agenda in place.

He added: “I’m pretty sure other people will try to create an issue that is simply not there.

“For me, it’s not an issue and to Matt it’s not an issue. We’re both doing our jobs to the best of our ability and we’ll see where we end up.

“I’d expect other clubs to be interested in somebody of Matt’s stature.

“But at this moment in time he’s got every opportunity to still be a Bradford City player.

“There are people slightly ahead of him but that can change quickly in football. He is well aware of that.

“Football continues and come next week we might be in a different situation.”

Collins expects no hangover from the shoot-out loss at the League Two side as City prepare for the long trip to Southend this weekend.

“The result obviously hurts but we’ll dust ourselves down,” he said. “It was a disappointed dressing room but we’ll take it on the chin and go down confident to Southend.

“I’m just disappointed that having had so many opportunities, we let the game get away from us when we should have been comfortably out of sight.

“But there was a lot more to build on and if we create that amount of chances on Saturday, I know we can come back with the three points.”