BOSS Mark Jermyn insists he will not risk Chris Dillon’s fitness by rushing him back from the knee injury which has blighted the defender’s preparations for the new season.

Dillon, the club’s standout player last term, picked up the problem during the Magpies’ second friendly of the summer against Bridport and hasn’t played since.

When asked if Dillon would be fit enough to take the field for Dorchester’s league opener against Histon on Saturday, player-manager Jermyn said: “We’ll see.

“Chris is having a couple of knee problems at the minute but I don’t think it’s anything drastic.

“I just want him to get back fit but I’m not in any rush to push somebody into playing if they’re not ready.

“I would rather a lesser player play as well as they can rather than Chris risking more injury.

“If he tries to protect himself on one side it opens him up to the other side where he could get injured.

“As much as we want him back we’re just monitoring it and we’ll do what we can to get him fit.

“He’s not played a lot of football or trained much in pre-season but he’s a fit lad anyway.”

Dillon was at the Avenue on Saturday to see Dorchester lose their last warm-up game against Truro – Matt Wright’s second-half goal gave the visitors a 1-0 win.

And after the match, Jermyn added another player to his squad in the shape of defender Oakley Hanger.

The young right-back featured a number of times for the county town outfit last season and has been retained for the next 12 months.

He is set to be joined at the club by Eastleigh striker Tony Lee, who featured against Truro alongside the returning Hanger.

“We’re still speaking to strikers and we’ve got Tony in from Eastleigh, and he looks good,” added Jermyn.

“He’s very strong and physical, can get hold of the ball, and is exactly what we need really.

“Tony has been recommended to us by Eastleigh so we’re going to look to take him on loan and we’re more than happy to do that.

“We just need to come to an agreement with Eastleigh.

“When we came into pre-season we didn’t have a striker, then we had Ben (Watson), Mark (Irvine) and Jonah (Ayunga), and now we’ve got Tony.

“We’ve got a bit more depth now and they’ve all got different attributes which is a positive as well.

“We’re happy with everyone at the moment, we just need to use them accordingly in games.”