Manny Duku among five players released by York City

13 players remain under contract for Michael Morton’s side, with five others currently under discussions with the club.

Four players' contract clauses have also been extended, all by a further year.

Fraser Kerr, Luke James, Manny Duku, AJ Greaves and Nathan Thomas have all been informed that their time with the club has come to an end, although Greaves and Thomas have both been invited to return for pre-season.

The news means that Adam Crookes, Alex Hurst, Dan Pybus, Maziar Kouhyar, Mitch Hancox, Olly Dyson, Ryan Whitley, Sam Sanders, Scott Burgess, Alex Whittle, Maison Campbell, Ryan Fallowfield and captain Lenell John-Lewis will also remain with the club for next season, leaving the club with 13 players contracted in North Yorkshire.

Kerr joined the club at the beginning of the season from fellow National League side Chesterfield, making 24 appearances across the season.

An injury in the 3-1 defeat to Wealdstone saw Kerr’s involvement become limited in the latter stages of the season, with the defender often being left out of the squad.

James was another player that only joined the club at the beginning of the campaign, after previous spells with Hartlepool United, Peterborough United and Barrow.

After 16 matches in a York shirt, James has left the club, struggling with injuries for a lot of the season and managing just one goal in that time.

Another player departing is Duku, who often became second-string striker to John-Lewis and Shaq Forde.

Mainly making appearances off-of-the-bench, Duku managed some important goals throughout the campaign, but in the end only managed four of them.

His most memorable moment in a City shirt will have been his strike against Shrewsbury Town in the FA Cup first round.

Striker Manny Duku is among those to be released. (Image: Tom Poole)

Greaves will be the next person to depart the club, although he has been invited back for pre-season.

After joining the club on a permanent deal following a loan spell at the back end of last season, Greaves’ time with the club looks to have come to an end.

Greaves ended the campaign on loan at Spennymoor Town, where he made five appearances before the Brewers missed out of the Vanarama National League North play-offs.

Thomas is the final name departing fron the LNER Community Stadium, after managing 11 appearances through the season.

A hamstring injury saw Thomas absent from the squad for the majority of the season, but he did manage to return to the bench for the final two matches of the season.

Watford loanee Shaq Forde enjoyed a prolific spell in North Yorkshire, even becoming the club's youngest ever hat-trick scorer. (Image: Tom Poole)

In other news, the club also confirmed that Forde, Danny Rowe, Mark Ellis, Ollie Tanner and Ethan Ross have all returned to their parent clubs.

Ellis has since been released by parent club Barrow and is available as a free agent, whilst Forde picked up an injury for Watford’s academy, coming off after 35 minutes in their 3-2 defeat to Burnley.