CITY will monitor Dylan Mottley-Henry this week after the winger picked up a pre-season injury.

Mottley-Henry was forced out of their opening friendly on Saturday following a problem he suffered during the warm-up.

The 22-year-old twisted his back and was pulled out as a precaution. He will be assessed over the next few days but the club are optimistic that it is nothing serious.

Stuart McCall said: “Dylan has been absolutely flying in training but felt a little tweak just as we were about to get going.

“That was probably the only negative of the day. But I don’t think it’s anything to worry about.

“We’ll have a look but I think it’s only going to be a few days.”

No details have been made public about City’s first practice match at the strict request of the team from a higher division that they were playing.

But McCall was encouraged by the game – the first competitive run-out that his squad have enjoyed since the last league action against Salford on March 7.

“We all came away as a staff and group very pleased with the work-out,” added the City boss.

“Obviously, we try to play two 45s (with different teams) but we didn’t want to risk anything now we are up and running.

“We ended up having 19 players but then Dylan pulled out which changed things a bit.

“A couple of the lads had to play a bit longer than normal. It wasn’t a problem when we’ve got a young squad like we have.

“Pre-season is a time to work on things and get it through to the players how we want to play.

“There was a lot of good stuff that we need to enforce and there are things we need to look at and improve upon. But that’s what these games are for.

“Thankfully the club that we played film the game for us, so we’ve got that. We can sit down and go through that with the players.

“One thing I’ve been impressed with is the quality of goals that we’ve scored in training and we carried that on. That was a nice positive to work on as well.

“The pitch and conditions were good and obviously the level of the opposition. Everything considered, it was a really pleasing start for us.”

Mottley-Henry made seven appearances last season before the shutdown after rejoining in January and is targeting a regular role this time under McCall.

Defender Jorge Sikora, one of the new senior pros, missed out at the weekend with a back problem similar to Mottley-Henry. But he is expected to return to training this week.

Kurtis Guthrie is also over the tight hamstring that had been hampering him after a strong return to pre-season.

City have a closed-doors-friendly arranged at Huddersfield next Wednesday and are likely to play another between now and then.

Today’s draw for the Carabao Cup first round will also give them a clearer idea of how the fixture list will unfold before League Two kicks off on September 12. City are ball number seven when it is made at 10am.

Meanwhile, City have been drawn in a group with Doncaster and Oldham in the EFL Trophy. An under-23 team from the Premiership or Championship will also be included.

The opening games in both competitions are scheduled to take place in the week leading up to the EFL start.