PHIL Parkinson today voiced his concerns over skipper Stephen Darby as he waits for an answer from a central-defensive target.

The City captain has not been involved at all in pre-season because of a stomach issue that has been troubling him since the back end of the last campaign.

Tony McMahon can plug the gap at right back – a role he played regularly in the past with Middlesbrough – in Darby’s absence but Parkinson admitted it is a worrying scenario.

Parkinson said: “Darbs is getting better but it’s a frustrating one for everyone. We need to get him back out on the training ground because he’s a key player for us.

“He had a stomach problem for the last three months of last season and we thought we’d resolved it.

“He had an injection in there but he was still feeling the pain leading up to pre-season.

“We sent him back to the specialist for another injection and the signs are it has worked. But he is a while off (coming back to) training.

“Tony’s obviously a very experienced right back and he’s played there at Championship level. He gives us good options in that position but we want Darbs back involved.”

Meanwhile, Parkinson is hoping for good news on a centre half as the search to replace Andrew Davies goes on.

Conrad Balatoni is the latest to trial the position but City have another in their sights.

Parkinson added: “We’ve got an offer on the table with a player and probably won’t know until the weekend with that one.

“But we’ve also got (Gary) Liddle, who’s played a lot of his career at centre half, Alan Sheehan the same and Chris Routis came to us as a centre half. We have got four players who can play there so we’re going to try and wait for the right one.

“There’s money in the budget to bring in a centre half obviously because that’s a key area for us. We’re working towards it.

“Mark Marshall took a while to get that one completed, Josh Morris took a while, all the ones we’ve brought in took a while. Centre half is probably taking longer than we wanted but that’s the way it is.

“Rotherham wanted two centre halves this year, Sheffield United are still looking, so it’s competitive to get the ones you want.

“But we’ve got players who can play there and the squad is piecing together nicely. Progress is being made but we need to continue to improve.”

Winger Marshall is the fifth recruit since City returned to pre-season 17 days ago and Parkinson feels the squad is taking shape. But they are still short on numbers.

“It’s not the finished article by any means but we’re starting to right things up.

“There aren’t as many question marks as there were two weeks ago. We are making progress.

“We’re not where we want to be yet in terms of numbers so there’s work still to do yet.

“But we’ve got some good players, the ones we’ve got in are good quality footballers and more importantly their attitude is first class.”