JOHN Hendrie insists bringing Eoin Doyle back to City is an “absolute no-brainer”.

Doyle is set to be recalled from a season-long loan at Swindon by his parent club and could be in the squad against Crawley on Saturday.

Having scored a staggering 23 goals in 22 games for the League Two leaders, Hendrie reckons it would be a major own goal to ignore such a prolific striker.

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The City legend said: “Forget the loan side, if he was your player would you sell to your rival for promotion?

“Even if Eoin Doyle is on my bench and I’m the manager, I wouldn’t let him go. That’s the biggest issue.

“If Bradford let him go to Swindon it’s like giving them a shoo-in for promotion.

“As soon as he leaves there, then Swindon have got a problem. You’re throwing a spanner in the works for them having to find a replacement.

“Now you’re giving your promotion rivals a wee problem.

“Whoever they try to bring in, there’s no guarantee that they will be a success. The chemistry may not be right.

“We saw that when Bradford tried to replace Nahki Wells. They brought in Aaron Maclean but he never got going.”

Doyle, who stayed away from last weekend’s draw at the County Ground, was recently quoted as saying he would be “disappointed” to leave Swindon midway through the season. But Hendrie stressed the decision is not his to make.

He added: “The bottom line is he’s employed by Bradford City. It’s the club who hold the cards, not Eoin Doyle.

“His contract’s up at the end of the season. If he spat his dummy out about coming back, which I would be very surprised he would do, but then any potential suitor would be put off signing him.

“Football’s a village, coaches and managers will talk. Clubs would think twice in the summer.

“Who’s to say there aren’t bigger clubs than Swindon looking at him? So, he’s playing for his future.

“I don’t know the lad but he signed the contract at Bradford 18 months ago.

“If circumstances had been different and it had all gone wrong, he’d still have the cushion of Bradford to come back to.

“Sometimes you see players go on loan and that acts as a spark. They come back and kick on.

“Bradford are probably thinking, ‘what’s to say he can’t do that for us?’

“Swindon are flying high but we’ve still got a great chance of catching them. There are only three promotion spaces up for grabs so if you’re preventing Eoin from going there, it’s more opportunity for us.”

Swindon are thought to be lining up another striker to take the Irishman’s place. But Hendrie has not ruled out the possibility they could try again later in the window.

He said: “Bradford are strong just now but if he’s not playing come the end of the month that could change. It’s like going to a market stall and you haggle.

“But right now, it’s an absolute no-brainer having him back.”