The Bluetongue boss admits the question of a new custodian is ‘high on the agenda’ at the Gosford outfit although he is not about to start panicking.

Mariners number one Danny Vukovic faces being sidelined until the end of November if his 15 month ban for striking referee Mark Shield is not overturned or further reduced on a second appeal.

Having already seen one appeal fail, the Mariners will state their case again next week with a trip to the Court of Arbitration for Sport not out of the question if the club is unsuccessful again.

Although the new season may seem a long way off at this stage, McKinna is anxious to make plans and it isn’t just the Vukovic situation that is concerning him.

He told au.fourfourtwo.com: “Obviously we’re still hopeful that Danny’s appeal will go well and that we will have him available.”

The Mariners also have Matthew Trott and Australian Under 20 goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne on the books but there are question marks over the pair at present.

McKinna said: “Trotty has had an injury and has to rest for six to eight weeks. Young Andrew is just 19 and he’s had a knock as well.

“So yes, it (the goalkeeping situation) is high on the agenda and yes, we have to be looking. But in the same breath we are not panicking about the situation.”

As for Vukovic, the club remains adamant that it is a case worth pursuing.

Executive chairman Lyall Gorman has stressed the club is not dragging out the process for the sake of it.

He said: “What we believe we have here are valid grounds for appeal and we feel very strongly about pursuing this.

“I’m not ruling anything out at this point. We will go into this next appeal in the first week of April having sought yet another (legal) opinion and as I said, we think we have valid grounds for continuing this (fight).”