ALEX Jones is facing a frustrating lay-off at the start of his City career.

The January recruit may have to go under the knife to repair a torn cartilage in his hip.

It is a highly unusual injury and the Bantams are considering their best course of action with the young striker.

Stuart McCall admitted: "It's disappointing news. We'll have a chat and see where we go with that one but we can't give a definite timescale.

"We're going to have to monitor the injury and get a second opinion to see how we treat it and what the next step is. We have to work out whether he'll have to have an operation to heal it.

"If you have a tear in the cartilage in your knee, you have an operation and will usually be out for three to four weeks. But I've never heard of a cartilage in the hip and getting an injury to that."

Jones has made three starts for City since signing from Birmingham for an undisclosed fee a month ago. His last appearance was a lively 20 minutes from the bench in the win at Oldham ten days ago but he was playing with some discomfort.

Having scored 11 goals during a half-season loan at Port Vale, he is yet to get off the mark for his new club. The injury is also likely to keep him out of a return to Vale Park later this month.

Charlie Wyke's arrival means McCall still has options up front without Jones – and the City boss admitted it was a harsh call to drop Jordy Hiwula for the Gillingham game on Saturday and pair the £250,000 deadline day signing with Billy Clarke.

McCall said: "It was really tough to leave out Jordy because he has done nothing wrong. He's scored five in eight starts for us and is our top scorer.

"But I see the desire in Billy after being out so long injured. He has that hunger in training and is desperate to do well and you see it in the games.

"We've also missed that dead-ball delivery when he's been out of the side. The free-kick for the second goal was fantastic."

Centre half Nathaniel Knight-Percival is expected to be fit to feature against Bristol Rovers after missing the last three games with an ankle problem.