Ashley Nathaniel-George could miss Saturday’s match at the LNER Community Stadium against National League North outfit Darlington (3pm), after sustaining a minor knee injury in last week’s 6-2 win over Maidenhead United.
Hinshelwood is keen to allow some of his consistent starters some rest time with York approaching a hectic festive period, with opportunities potentially arising for a number of fringe players tomorrow afternoon.
“We’ve definitely got to pay Darlington the upmost respect and we will do, we want to be competitive,” Hinshelwood asserted.
“At the same time, we want to utilise that squad as well so it’s about getting that balance right.
“There’s players that have played a lot of minutes and could potentially do with a rest going into a busy period, there’s players that we’ve spoken about that are just starting to hit a bit of form and confidence, you want to keep them rolling.
“It’s a tough one to call, but I think that having no game in midweek really helps with that, we’ve got a long time to recover in between games at the moment.
“There’s no injury concerns, we’re just looking at the load and minutes, there’s a few players that have had a lot of minutes this season so we’ve got to take that into consideration.
“In terms of injuries, Ash got a bit of a bang on his knee and it flared up today [Wednesday].
“It’s nothing too malicious to worry about for Saturday, we hope.
“We’ll see how he recovers and look at him on Friday, but he’s the only one at the moment from the current squad that could potentially be a doubt.”
Hinshelwood believes that it’s important to strike the right balance in his York squad with the chance arising to play against lower league opposition.
With that comes opportunity, potentially for the likes of Paddy McLaughlin and Mo Fadera, with Hinshelwood wary of the length of the campaign and the ramifications it can have on his players legs.
“It’s always been the way of trying to balance a squad that wants to compete for a 46 game league campaign and cup games as well.
“There’s lots of games and we want to give players opportunity, I’m a keen one for that.
“At the same time, we’ve got to see it with guys that perform on the pitch and in training.
Decisions have definitely been made tougher by how well players have trained, that’s going to be the toughest part of the job, getting that balance right on who needs to stay fresh and who needs resting up.
“I’m sure that if one of our top players was to play and get injured, I’d get criticised for playing them.
“It’s getting that balance right, we’ll speak to the medical staff and see who’s most at risk and what the best squad we can put out is really.
Hinshelwood added on potential opportunities for both McLaughlin and Fadera: “We want them to feature and feel part of it as well.
“You’ve got to really get the balance right in a harmonious squad, that I like to have.
“If the players are happy then we can give them an opportunity, and the players need to be confident to play.
“It’s not football for all, but at the same time you want to give players an opportunity if it’s there too.
“Paddy and Mo have trained brilliantly, so this could be an opportunity to at least include them in the squad.
“We are absolutely thinking about it.
“You must be prepared to seize the opportunity whenever you are fortunate enough to don the York City shirt and perform in front of our home crowd.”
