PHIL Parkinson will step up his chase to bring in another winger after the shoulder injury to Filipe Morais.

The Portuguese, who has been one of City’s key performers in recent weeks, was forced to quit the Gillingham game after just 18 minutes.

Parkinson already had an eye on trying to attract a further wide player before Thursday’s 5pm emergency loan deadline.

Now those efforts will increase as City face up to the imminent spell on the sidelines of the in-form Morais.

Parkinson said: “Before Filipe’s injury, I was thinking of trying to get another wide player in as well. That now makes it more important to give us another option in wide areas.

“Are there a lot of those type of players available? No. But there’s a couple we are going to be watching over the next two days before we make any decision.

“But like I’ve said before, sometimes if it’s a youngster they may not be ready to play straight away but might give us something from the bench.”

Morais damaged his right shoulder after making a very positive start in Saturday’s game. City are still assessing the seriousness of the injury.

Parkinson added: “There’s nothing broken but he’s damaged the ligaments in the shoulder. It’s a setback for him.

“He put two or three absolutely top class crosses in, even after getting the injury. It was a great little cameo from him.

“It was a big blow to lose Fil, especially with Gillingham playing the way they did with the wing-backs and him having the space to exploit out wide.

“There’s probably a strapping we can put on it but we’ll wait to know more.

Andrew Davies’s medial ligament opened up a little bit in the game so we will monitor him and there were two or three other knocks.”

Francois Zoko was put through his first training session with City yesterday after his arrival on a two-month loan from Blackpool.

The Ivorian striker was signed in time to be included in the squad at the weekend but Parkinson chose not to bring him off the bench.

After James Hanson came on for Jon Stead, the City boss replaced fellow striker Billy Clarke with Jason Kennedy in the final ten minutes.

The City boss said: “Francois will have plenty of game time while he’s here.

“He only came in at 1pm and met the lads for the first time in the dressing room. We were originally going to have Olly McBurnie on the bench and let him just watch it from the stands. But we thought having got him in we’d put him in the squad so he would be there if he was needed.

“I thought Jon Stead and Billy Clarke played well up front. Steady tired so we put on Hanson.

“When Billy came off, there was not long left and we were in a position where we should have seen the game through.

“But Francois will get to know everyone well with a full week of training. This is a chance for him to prove himself over the next couple of months.”