Darlington midfielder Phil Turnbull has declared himself fit to face Hyde United on Saturday.

After the Mickleover home win on October 24^th, the former Gateshead player suffered a broken jaw in an incident outside of football in his home town of South Shields in which he was the innocent and injured party, and he has missed five games since then – one in the league and four in cups.

“As of Monday, I’ve declared myself fit,” he said. “From a selfish point of view, I’ve only missed one league game, at Barwell.

“I must admit that when I first suffered the injury, I was panicking, because I thought I would miss quite a few games in the league, because after all, the league is our bread and butter. But the bad weather has worked in my favour.

“I felt much better after I had a practice match on Monday night at Maiden Castle. It was full contact, and I didn’t suffer any after-effects. I don’t think I’ve lost too much fitness either, my stats were quite decent when I did a bit of running last Saturday.”

Quakers go to Hyde in fifth place in the table, and Phil said; “When Salford got involved in the FA Cup, I thought we would be able to take advantage, but it hasn’t worked out that way because we’ve had games called off as well.

“The games are going to come thick and fast now, there are going to be plenty in midweek.”