Coronavirus scuppers Hartlepool United's return to pre-season training

After going the entire 2020-21 campaign with just two confirmed cases, there has been a covid outbreak at the club in the wake of their promotion to League Two.

But manager Dave Challinor is looking on the positive side as the virus didn’t impact Pools’ promotion final victory and isn’t set to impact any first team friendly matches over the next month as it stands.

“We’re back in today with reduced numbers,” he told The Mail. “Things have obviously been a little bit slow and we’ve had covid go through the camp which probably happened at a good time to be honest rather than three weeks earlier!

"It probably comes as no surprise to people that it has spread and we’ve got lads who have had to self-isolate for 10 days.

"We’ve got three or four back in tomorrow, a few back in Saturday and by Monday we should have everybody back in and hopefully by then a few more numbers in the building too.”

As it stands, Pools have Nicky Featherstone, Gary Liddle, Mark Shelton, Timi Odusina, Gavan Holohan, David Ferguson, Joe Grey, Tom Crawford and Josh MacDonald contracted for the upcoming campaign.

There are also positive indications regarding the ongoing contract discussions with Jamie Sterry, Rhys Oates, Ben Killip and Luke Molyneux.

The recruitment ball is finally rolling at Hartlepool and it looks set to pick up pace in the coming days.

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