ADAM Hinshelwood reported a positive update on the injury latest with Harrison Male – but couldn’t share the same level of good news for Dipo Akinyemi.

After suffering an apparent neck injury in Saturday’s 3-1 loss at Boston United, York City goalkeeper Male was forced off at half-time precautionarily, after sustaining the knock when trying to keep out the home side’s first goal.

It’s positive news for Male however, who could be involved for York’s return to the LNER Community Stadium on Saturday, when Dagenham & Redbridge visit North Yorkshire (3pm).

“He’s getting on okay,” Hinshelwood confirmed.

“He’s done his first bit of handling today [Wednesday] with Joe [Stead, goalkeeping coach] and that went well.

“Obviously we’ll see how he sort of comes back from that, he’ll have a day to recover tomorrow and then we’ll see how he is on Friday.

“Provided there is no reaction or anything, we are quietly confident that he’ll be fit and available.”

Should Male not be able to recover in time for the match against Dagenham & Redbridge, Hinshelwood will turn his attention to back-up shot-stopper Rory Watson, who could be in line for a first league start since Altrincham away in November.

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Watson did also start in the FA Trophy defeat away at Gainsborough Trinity, and proved to play a part in Declan Howe’s winner for the lower league side, after his attempted pass fell to the striker.

Hinshelwood isn’t particularly concerned about the difference in playing out from the back between his two goalkeeping options, with the boss confident that either shot-stopper would do a job should they need to on Saturday.

“It’s definitely an area of the game that Rory is looking to improve on, and he’s getting more and more comfortable with some of his passing that he now makes," he continued.

“He’s getting more comfortable with how we want to play.

“We’ve got no gripes or question marks if we do need to change the goalie, Harrison has done well and has kept a lot of clean sheets, as has Rory as well.

“I’ve been really impressed with both of the ‘keepers throughout the season, when they’ve both been called upon they have both made some really big saves for us.

“We’re proud of our clean sheet record, I think it was before the Boston game, half of our games had been clean sheets and that’s something that we’re really pleased with and want to maintain.

“We were disappointed to concede three, we haven’t conceded three in a game too many times this year, and again I don’t think that was partly down to the goalkeepers.

“We’ve got two good goalkeepers on our hands, and whoever gets the nod or the go ahead to play, we’re really happy with.”

There’s bad news for Akinyemi however, who could be out for a long period of time with potential knee surgery required.

Dipo Akinyemi may require knee surgery. (Image: Tom Poole) Akinyemi will meet with a knee specialist on Thursday to assess his options, after twisting it against Sutton United.

Hinshelwood revealed: “It wasn’t brilliant news back from Dipo.

“He’s now got a meeting with a knee specialist tomorrow evening [Thursday] to see where we go.

“We have a couple of options, to rest, or whether we need to go down the operation route.

“We’ll find out a bit more on which way he goes, whether it’s a slightly long time out, or a much longer period out.

“We’re hoping to get all of those answered tomorrow, when he goes to see the knee specialist.

“It’s not ideal timing and it’s a blow for him as a lad and as a person, and also for our squad as well.”

The mood lightened when Hinshelwood provided the latest on defenders Adam Crookes and Ryan Fallowfield, who have both been absent as of late with injuries.

The duo are both back in training, and could be involved against the Daggers this coming Saturday.

“Crookesy is back in training, he’s been training for the last couple of days.

“We’ll see how he comes back and how he feels after having a couple of days back introduced into training.

“He’s [Fallowfield] trained all week this week, so he’ll be, again providing there is no reoccurring and he doesn’t feel anything so he comes through okay, we’re hoping he’ll be available for the squad on Saturday.”