Graeme Lee remains cautious over Marcus Carver as the striker nears Hartlepool United return

Carver is a new signing at the Suit Direct Stadium having joined for an undisclosed fee from Southport last month but has endured a bit of a stop-start time since making the switch.

Carver made his debut in the defeat at Bristol Rovers with Pools supporters encouraged by what they saw from their new striker but the 28-year-old only managed 53 minutes in his second start at Carlisle United three days later after picking up a slight groin strain.

Carver’s move from non-league concerned Lee in terms of the players fitness with him not being up to speed with the rigours of the Football League.

And Lee has suggested the club are managing his return by building up his fitness so that there will be no recurrence of the injury when he does return to the fold.

“He’s close. He got back into training last week but I wanted him to get a bit of a mini pre-season into him,” said Lee.

“I think from him coming in we said we knew he came from non-league and his lack of fitness was a massive thing.

“And from playing one game he got fatigued and got a little strain so we need to make sure he’s right up to speed.

“We’ve put him through his paces this week and worked him hard and we’ll continue to do that.

"But the last thing I want to do is put someone back in for him to pull out again, so we need to make sure he’s up to speed.”

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