'Observant' Bradford City boss Graham Alexander on free agent plans and an injury update ahead of Harrogate Town game

City, who visit Harrogate Town in a League Two Yorkshire derby on Saturday lunch-time, are significantly down on numbers at centre-half and also have issues in midfield.

Central defenders Aden Baldwin, Niall Byrne and Ciaran Kelly are all currently out of action, while – further forward – Antoni Sarcevic and Joe Adams are also in the treatment room.

On monitoring free agent options, Alexander said: "We are because even if we bring players back, we need to be aware of who is available and what condition that they are in. Because if anything happened to further players, we’d be in a difficult situation.

"We will keep those lines of observation open and be ready to act if needed.

"We put some feelers out (last week) and spoke to a couple of people. But we are just going to wait to see where Aden and Byrne are out and when they join back into training. But it’s not just that position, but another where we feel we are a little bit light on.

"With Joe and Sarce missing, that’s where we’re in a similar position. We’re just being observant and making sure we are ready if we do have to make a move.”

Jamie Walker and Lewis Richards could be involved in Saturday’s game at Wetherby Road, while Baldwin and Byrne are on the comeback trail.

Kelly is out of action for a few months following ankle surgery.

Alexander added: “Jamie and Lewis part trained today (Wednesday_. so we will see how they are overnight and how they come back. They obviously haven’t missed a big chunk as their issues have been quite recent. So we will just see how they are.

"We don’t want to take any risks because we can’t afford to lose anyone else.

"Aden (Baldwin) and Neil Byrne have both been on the grass this week. Not with us, but the medical team.

"Ciaran had an operation yesterday, so we will wait to see how the feedback went. He’ll be out for a few months.

"Joe Adams will see a specialist tomorrow, so we will wait to see what comes back from that. He had a scan (this week) but it has to go to a specialist to come back to us and Wigan, his parent club, before we know the full extent of that.

"The other two, Sarce and Callum Johnson are on their road to recovery.

"He (Sarcevic) saw somebody on Monday and had an injection to speed up the process, but that was part of the plan anyway. He’s where we expect him to be.”