United manager Simon Grayson intends to field at least 22 players over the course of Sunday's opening pre-season friendly at York City.

Rui Marques, Richard Naylor, and Tresor Kandol are the only absentees from Grayson's squad as United kick-off the warm-up campaign with the annual game at KitKat Crescent.

"We're looking at playing two teams, 45 minutes each," said the boss. 

"They have done some football work in pre-season, and they've been working hard, so you expect there will be some tired legs. 

"The aim is to get them ready and prepared for football. We'll ease them in and we're looking for a good work out. 60/70 minutes is too long at this stage and we'll gradually build it up.

"Shane Higgs and Jason Crowe will get 45 minutes, along with all of the fit players.

"Everybody will be looking forward to it because it's the first game for both sides.

"You have to get the right balance in terms of fitness, and at the same time you want to see nobody kicking lumps out of each other.

"Hopefully it'll be a good day. It's all about fitness - that's the case about pre-season.

"You can win every pre-season game and lose your first few games or you can lose all your pre-season games and start really well. It's all about fitness and being sharp for August 8.

"If you win your games it's a confidence boost, but you can read too much into it."

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