Teenager Luke O'Brien is ready to be thrown into the heat of a Yorkshire derby after Paul Heckingbottom was ruled out for at least a couple of weeks.

Heckingbottom strained his calf in the closing stages of Saturday's energy-sapping draw at Chesterfield.

Although it is not as bad as City thought at the time, the experienced left back will definitely miss at least the next two games.

So O'Brien, who did a good job as understudy in the FA Cup loss to Tranmere, will step in for his league debut in next weekend's Valley Parade clash with in-form Rotherham.

City boss Stuart McCall said: "Luke was unfortunate not to keep his place after the Tranmere game because he was one of our better players but I went for the experience of Hecky to come back in at Mansfield, especially with the way they set up.

"Luke's been training very well and he's got a good attitude towards the game and wants to learn. I thought he did well last time and hopefully he can play like that again next week."

Heckingbottom, whose loan deal from Barnsley runs out on New Year's Day, had feared he might not kick a ball again before then. But the injury had settled down sufficiently today for McCall to predict he could be back for Christmas week when City play three times in the space of six days.

McCall added: "We're maybe looking at a couple of weeks, which is unfortunate, but considering that calf injuries can take anything from two to five weeks to recover, then we're hoping he's at the lower end of that.

"Hecky has had a slight problem with his ankle for a bit and has to run slightly differently but because the Chesterfield pitch was so heavy and fatigue sets in, that made the problem worse.

"He felt a twinge in his calf in the last minute and had to come off. It was worse than cramp but hopefully not as bad as we feared and he shouldn't be out for too long."

There is still no definite news on whether Nicky Law will be staying with City for a third month.

Law, who has played ten times and scored twice, was not at Apperley Bridge today for training and McCall is waiting for official word from Bramall Lane.

He said: "It's looking doubtful but I'm just waiting for a call back. As we've been saying, if Sheffield United don't want to use him over the next few weeks then he would definitely get games here."

Rotherham suffered their first loss in 11 games on Saturday when they went down 4-2 at home to Rochdale, ending a run of seven successive wins.

Boss Mark Robins said: "Football always has a kick in the teeth and we have to take it and bounce back at Bradford. If we have aspirations to be successful this season we have to pick things up again."

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