Guiseley have suffered a major blow with a serious injury to goalkeeper Jon Worsnop.

The former Bradford City shot-stopper had just attended training at Nethermoor last Saturday when he was knocked off his motorbike outside the ground.

Guiseley manager Steve Kittrick said: “All the lads saw it – it was very distressing.

“Jon wasn’t wearing any leathers and we understand he has broken a bone in his back and will need skin grafts.

“He is being operated on on Friday and I reckon he could be out for four months.”

Guiseley played their first pre-season friendly tonight at home to Middlesbrough, a game that was hastily comfirmed when Peter Taylor’s Bradford City pulled out of a Tuesday night friendly at Nethermoor because they could not agree a kick-off time with Guiseley.

The hosts wanted a 7.30pm kick-off to pull in a bigger crowd but former England under-21 boss Taylor was adamant that the kick-off should be half-an-hour earlier in order to give his troops more rest before training this morning.

“The kick-off time was the issue, and that is a matter of fact, but we feel we have made our point over that now and wish to move on,” said Guiseley chairman Phil Rogerson.

“We still think it not in the spirit of the agreement (over James Hanson’s signing by City) and it will obviously cost us a lot of money.

“ The game will now take place sometime after the season starts, so will not have the same attendance that a pre-season game would have had.

“Still, Middlesbrough have been on our list from the start and we have been trying to find a date that was mutually acceptable.

“With the Bradford game off now we could accommodate Middlesbrough last night on the date that they originally requested.

“It was not a case of Boro stepping in after we lost the Bradford game, just a case of us having a free midweek all of a sudden.

“Every cloud has a silver lining, so we were very glad to be hosting Boro. We were assured that there would be first-team players involved, so that should have brought a crowd in and it should have been a good game for our players.

“It was our first game and Steve Kittrick was happy about it being against a Football League club.”

Guiseley intended to use David Cansella in the nets tonight in place of Worsnop.

Kittrick, who has visited Worsnop in hospital, said: “David has joined us from Barnsley and has been playing in Australia and has played previously for Millwall and in Greece.

“He has basically joined us pre-season to do some coaching, because he has got all his badges.”

Another possibility between the sticks for Kittrick is Josh Mimms, the 21-year-old son of former Spurs, Everton, Blackburn and York City Minstermen No 1 Bobby Mimms.

Mimms junior spent his formative years at Rotherham before joining Liverpool.

After two years at Anfield and with limited chances for progression, he followed in his father’s footsteps and joined York.

Having spent much of his time at KitKat Crescent on the bench as Tom Evans’ understudy, Mimms is now looking to combine the playing side with coaching and has the opportunity to replace Neil Bennett, who left Nethermoor at the end of last season.

Boro manager Gordon Strachan promised to send a strong squad last night and Lions’ manager Steve Kittrick hoped to get all of his close-season signings some game-time.

Kittrick said: “The only ones who were missing out were Jon Worsnop, David Syers, who is training with Bradford City this week, and Danny Ellis, who is getting married.

“I intended to use all my new signings – Ryan Tolson, Joe O’Neill, Warren Payton and Gavin Rothery – and we will also be having a look at Bradford City’s Tom Penford and Luke Sharry.”

Penford was with Farsley Celtic in 2008-09, while Sharry was among seven players released by City in May.

Kittrick insists his side are not just going into the Blue Square North to make the numbers up.

The Nethermoor chief is filled with optimism going into the new season, an influx of new signings having outweighed the departure of Adam Muller and Stuart Rudd.

Kittrick said: “The major signings we have made and the players we retained from last year have all played in the Conference (Premier or North) or above.

“In fact, 90 per cent of the squad have been involved at this level or higher so it should hold no surprises.

“I have every confidence in the players, so we are not going into the Blue Square just to make the numbers up.”

Kittrick reckons that promotion has had a two-fold effect on the club.

He said: “Players are keener to join us because we have gone up but they are also realising that there isn’t the money in the non-league game that there used to be.”

Kittrick is also mindful of not over-using their Nethermoor pitch in pre-season.

“Our groundsman Roger has done a magnificent job with the pitch, but we don’t want to spoil it , and that is why we have only arranged two games at home.”