If Kyle Lightbourne fails to seal a permanent deal with Hull City, his future would still appear to be away from Macclesfield Town.

Lightbourne, who is on loan at Third Division play-off hopefuls City until the end of the season, has a year to run on his Macclesfield contract.

However, he is on the transfer list and boss Dave Moss gave a non-too subtle hint that he would look to offload the striker in the summer if he returned to Moss Rose from Boothferry Park.

The manager, who acquired Lightbourne when he took over from the man who signed him, Gil Prescott, is planning major changes in the coming months.

Moss is looking to bring in three or four new players and began the revolution on Thursday with the transfer-deadline day signing of Tranmere's Paul Aldridge.

"I'm going to have a damn good clear out. I'd rather get rid of six or seven players and bring in three or four of better quality, working with a smaller, but better squad," the manager said. "I'm looking for a striker, a left-sided player and possibly a right-sided player and another defender."

Lightbourne is set to see action for Hull today when they take on Darlington.

He made his debut in the 0-0 draw with Leyton Orient last weekend, and although he failed to score and, according to caretaker boss Billy Russell, looked tired before the end, he is predicted to get the nod over fellow new boy Adrian Caceres.

Hull have been hit by a spate of injuries and that led to Russell bringing in the two loan players.

However, Lightbourne didn't help the situation when during a training session he accidentally collided with skipper Justin Whittle. Whittle suffered a shoulder injury and will miss the Darlington game and possibly the game against Cheltenham on Bank Holiday Monday.

Lightbourne, who scored four goals in his time at Macclesfield, will be looking to open his account for the Tigers today and he's already received his instructions from Russell.

"We'll be going for goals and when you look at our position in the table - and how many games we've got to play - then we've got to look to beat Darlington," said Russell. "It's a very big game for us."