ARRAN WEARMOUTH may make his Darlington debut tomorrow – ten months after signing for the club.

He returns to the Darlington squad for the weekend’s game with Brackley at Blackwell Meadows, after recovering a knee injury which has kept him sidelined since joining the club last May.

After successfully coming through a 30-minute run-out for the reserves last Saturday, Wearmouth is in contention for a place on the bench, says manager Martin Gray.

He said: “He might make the bench this weekend, but he’ll definitely be in the squad.

“He did fine in the reserves. Did half an hour, had a training session on Tuesday and he’ll come into the squad, so I’m delighted to get him back.

“His rehab has been good, the medical side of things has gone great, so we’ve just got to get him on the pitch now.

“Let’s hope we’re in a position that we can get him on the pitch, but he’s not a starter at this moment in time.”

Wearmouth, a wide midfielder, sustained a cruciate injury at the end of last season while playing for previous club Blyth Spartans, but the issue was not detected before he signed for Quakers.

He even continued to play for Blyth after sustaining the injury, not realising the severity of the problem and believing he had recovered.

However, the former Bishop Auckland ace felt soreness in his knee before beginning pre-season with Darlington and was sent for an MRI scan which has indicated he required an operation.

Having won 1-0 at Stalybridge Celtic last Saturday, play-off chasing Darlington are looking to record back-to-back wins for the first time since October.