GARY Bowyer will continue to put Eoin Doyle’s future on the backburner as City head into their busiest spell .

Doyle is the leading scorer in the country after his weekend double took him to 16 goals for Swindon.

Neither club will comment on whether there is a recall in his season-long loan, although City blocked the Robins from playing him in the FA Cup.

Ahead of tonight’s first-round replay with Shrewsbury at Valley Parade, Bowyer was asked again about the striker’s position.

“I’m delighted he’s doing ever so well because he’s a great lad,” he said. “He’s doing what he is good at and that’s scoring goals.

“We could talk about it from now until January but I think it will be parked until then. By then, we’ll know exactly where we are and what the situation is.”

Bowyer, who will make a late call on James Vaughan’s injured ankle before naming his side, admits the stop-start nature of City’s fixture list in recent weeks has done them some favours with numbers.

Jake Reeves could well feature again and Matty Palmer has also started training outside and hopes to join in with the squad by the end of the week.

Bowyer added: “Ironically we were going to Macclesfield a few weeks and young Reece Staunton was going to be on the bench with one or two more youngsters involved and the game got called off.

“Come forward to now and there might be one or two seniors missing out (because of the options). That’s how quickly it can change in a short space of time.

“As a manager you want that many bodies available, then comes the hardest bit leaving people out the squad. But you’d rather that than looking around for who to pick.

“Matty Palmer’s smile grows from ear to ear with every game that gets called off. He doesn’t like missing games and obviously there are one or two the same.

“But you also want to get in that rhythm of playing games and winning games.

“The intensity they have trained at was very similar to the game we will play. Hopefully that will enable us to come out the doors flying.”

Clayton Donaldson is also hoping to step up his rehab next week after his toe operation.

“Clayton’s doing all right,” said Bowyer. “He’s at home and can’t put any weight on it yet for another couple of days.

“His missus is pregnant with their second child, so I don’t know who’s killing who in that household!

“He’s got another follow-up at the specialist and he’ll be back in then.

“It’s just the whole bizarre circumstances of the injury. He’s having to deal with that."