Mark Jackson will take his time and listen to advice from family, friends, colleagues and his manager, Neil Parsley, before making the decision on whether to hang his boots up.

The former Leeds United and Rochdale centre back is one of Parsley’s two player assistant-managers.

Jackson and Simeon Bambrook are legends at Throstle Nest after being such stalwarts of the old club Farsley Celtic, helping them all the way up to the Conference Premier.

Parsley said: “We have been particularly badly hit by injuries to central defenders this season and that has had a big say regarding our league position.

“Even now we know that Jacko’s and James Riley’s seasons are over. They have no chance of making it back before the summer.

“Both of them have been badly missed and I’m sure we would have won a lot more football matches with them, or even one of them, in our side regularly in the second half of the season.

“Jacko is a big influence on the pitch but we still have him in the dugout and on the training pitch.

“He did say it might be time to call it a day when his ankle went again (in the home game against Lancaster City midway through December) but he is feeling much stronger in the joint now.

“I think the best way forward is to have a long think about it and then sit down in the summer and make a decision. It’s not the right thing to rush things like this.”