SAM Hornby will wear a protective mask to speed up his recovery from a facial injury.

City’s back-up keeper had a scan this morning for the face mask to be ordered.

Hornby was not on the bench at Newport after suffering the injury in a challenge with Kian Scales at training.

Derek Adams will again go without a second stopper for this weekend’s home game against Bristol Rovers.

But the Bantams boss hopes that wearing a mask will mean Hornby is only missing for a shorter period than first thought.

Adams said: “It depends on how quickly and confident he is to come back to training with that.

“It will take weeks to heal but the facemask does protect him.

“It’s something that a lot of players have been able to get on with.

“Hopefully Sam, when he gets the mask fitted, quickly realises that and gets confident in it so he will get back in goals.

“It’s less of a risk than an outfield player, like a centre half, that has to wear a mask. At least he’s got two hands to use.”

Oscar Threlkeld is fine to play on Saturday after being forced off at half-time last week following a clash of heads. But skipper Niall Canavan is still on his way back.