City defender James Meredith is almost certain to miss tonight's eagerly-anticipated Capital One Cup Semi Final First Leg with Aston Villa as the club try to get to the bottom of his recent virus.
After being withdrawn at half-time at Morecambe on New Year's Day due to illness, Meredith went on to miss last Saturday's trip to Barnet as a result.
The left-back tried to make a return to training this Monday but the Australian was still clearly struggling with the effects of his virus and was sent home.
Meredith will now undergo some doctors tests to see if it can be determined once and for all what is troubling the defender.
Bantams boss Phil Parkinson said: "James is going to see a doctor at hospital to undergo some tests because he is still not fully cleared up from the virus he's had recently."
"He came in on Monday keen to be involved, but we have to be careful that we don't rush him back too soon like we did a bit with Nahki (Wells) recently and then set him back a bit.
"Tonight's game will require high energy levels from every player involved and it wouldn't be fair on James to throw him into a situation like that when he wasn't ready."
While Meredith is clearly all set to miss out, Garry Thompson is certainly out of tonight's tie as he remains sidelined with minor knee ligament damage.
James Hanson and Stephen Darby are currently nursing knocks going into this evening's Villa encounter and will need to checked over before Parkinson names his starting line up.
Parkinson added: "Tommo (Garry Thompson) is definitely out tonight.
"We have a few other bumps and bruises - Hans (James Hanson) and Stephen Darby - nothing too major though.
"We haven't named our team too early this time. We just want to give (Head Physio) Matt Barrass every chance to get those guys back and ready for tonight."