CITY are relaxed about Luca Colville remaining on a week-by-week arrangement until he signs his contract.

The midfielder is still to put pen to paper on the one-year deal that has been on the table since May.

He was on the bench for the League Two curtain-raiser against Cambridge after signing on short-term forms.

Gary Bowyer had expected Colville to have committed to the season by now. But he has no issue with a temporary compromise until the decision is made.

The City boss said: “Am I surprised it’s not done yet? Probably yes.

“But it’s not one that I lose sleep over at night, for sure.

“Everything that I’m aware of from what people are telling me is that it’s more or less there. It’s a case of just getting on with it.

“Luca has signed a deal at the moment where we’re in a position we can put him in the squad.

“We’ll have to monitor that as we go but I’ve got no problem with it at all.”

With five players unavailable through injury on the opening day, Bowyer admitted his resources are already stretched. Having Colville still in the ranks has helped with the options.

“That’s the most important thing for me right now because we weren’t blessed with mass numbers,” added Bowyer, who expects to have defender Paudie O’Connor back in the mix for the Grimsby game.

“It’s looking promising with Paudie and hopefully there will be a few more returning. Shay (McCartan) and Zeli (Ismail) won’t be too long.

“Zeli just tweaked his hamstring a little bit after the Bradford (Park Avenue) game. We’ve decided not to rush him on that because obviously he missed the first couple of weeks of pre-season with a back problem.

“We’re just making sure that his rehab is a little bit longe,r so we don’t get anything recurring and he won’t be playing catch-up.”