THE door is not closed on James Caton and he may yet make a remarkable return to the Darlington team, says Tommy Wright.

The winger has been out on loan since the beginning of the campaign and returned to Quakers this week, though he is not immediately available for selection due to injury.

His contract with Darlington runs until the end of this season, but he appeared very much out of favour when Wright allowed him to join Northern Premier League club Warrington Town in August.

After that loan spell ended he headed to Stalybridge Celtic, also in the NPL, where he made ten appearances without scoring, a calf injury affecting his time at Bower Fold.

Speaking ahead of tomorrow’s home game with Kidderminster Harriers, Wright said: “He’s a Darlington player and will be treated just the same as everybody else.

“It’s up to him now. He went out on loan because he wanted to play week in, week out. But if he comes back and shows the right attitude and is sharper and brighter than everyone else then I’m not going to ignore him.

“I get on quite well with James, but he wants to play every week and until now I’ve not been in a position to give him that.

“Once he’s fit he will train and it’s up to him. We always knew it would be a possibility he would be back, so it’s up to Cates to get himself fit.

“He has a grade two calf injury so is another two or three weeks away from fitness.

“If the phone rings and an opportunity comes for him to play week in, week out he will be informed and it will be up to him and his agent what he does with that, or he gets his head down at this club.

“The door is not closed on anyone. Jonny Burn is not in the team, it’s up to him to get his shirt back and the same goes for Alex Wollerton, Stephen Thompson and Simon Ainge.

“It’s nice that we can have these conversations because it means I’ve got a squad and it means lads getting left out that two or three weeks ago were starting at a time that I didn’t have enough players.”

Caton, who turns 25 today, was brought to Darlington by Martin Gray in the summer of 2017 after impressing while on trial, but after showing initial promise he faded from the first-team picture.