CLAYTON McDonald is in line to face Corby Town tomorrow – just days after his loan deal ended at the Vanarama National League North strugglers.

The 6ft 6in centre-back has featured regularly for Corby this season and even captained the side after Worcester City decided to send him out on loan in October.

But the Northamptonshire side now look set to have the challenge of getting past the former Walsall defender after he rejoined City ahead of the Aggborough clash.

Joint-manager Carl Heeley said: “Clayton’s loan has ended and he is now back at the club.

“He trained on Tuesday night and, as always, he came in with the right attitude to work hard, as he is a Worcester player.

“He wasn’t playing (at the start of the season) as he was on the fringes and sometimes out of the squad, so we felt like he needed some regular football.

“We decided to send him out to Corby to get some minutes and he has played a number of games there, so hopefully we will have benefitted from that.”

Fellow defender Alex Gudger, who has been sidelined with an ankle injury, is expected to return after doing another training session.

Heeley said he would be monitoring the fitness of defender Wayne Thomas and forwards Lee Hughes and Deon Burton before the game between 18th-placed City and second-from-bottom Corby.

“Alex trained on Tuesday night but he was the only one out of the four injured players who trained, so we hope things will improve throughout the week,” he said.

“Deon didn’t train because of work commitments but he is going to be fine for the weekend.

“Lee is still feeling his thigh and we are not going to know about either him or Wayne until later.”

Heeley was disappointed not to face Lowestoft Town last Saturday as the fixture fell victim to the weather but admitted it had allowed players more time to recover.

“From a logistical and travelling point of view, the rearranged game is going to cause us problems and we are going to have to deal with that,” he said.

“But we always look at the positives and they were that we had players missing through injury, so hopefully we will be in better shape tomorrow.”