Hartlepool United attacker a doubt for National League season opener at Yeovil
Hartlepool United manager Simon Grayson has revealed that Jermaine Francis is a doubt for this weekend's long trip to Yeovil.
For the second year in a row, Pools are set to begin their National League campaign with a 687-mile round trip to Huish Park, but Grayson's side could be forced to make the long journey without one of their 12 new signings.
Francis, who signed for Pools in July after leaving National League champions Barnet at the end of last season, had been tipped to start Saturday's game in-behind strikers Alex Reid and Danny Johnson. Although the 23-year-old has had something of a mixed pre-season campaign, his pace and energy adds something different to the front line and he showed his quality during a successful loan spell at Braintree last term, scoring eight goals in 30 games and finding the net against Pools in February. However, having picked up a knock during last weekend's final pre-season game of the summer, a disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of National League North side South Shields, the Grenadian international's involvement in this weekend's game has been thrown into doubt.
Fortunately for Pools, Grayson does have other options in attack. While the likes of Luke Charman and Sam Folarin, who both endured mixed debut campaigns at Victoria Park last term, have demonstrated their versatility in pre-season, the leading contender to replace Francis is perhaps fellow new recruit Matty Daly. The 24-year-old sealed a return to Victoria Park last month following a successful loan spell in the 2021/22 season, scoring seven goals in 27 games. Perhaps the one concern regarding Daly's potential involvement might be his match fitness; not only has the attacking-midfielder missed a large chunk of pre-season following his late arrival at Pools, he hasn't made a competitive appearance since New Year's Day having struggled with a string of injuries towards the end of his time at former club Harrogate. Adam Campbell, who endured such a torrid first season in the North East and will be looking to rebuild his confidence this term, could also be in contention for a starting spot.
"He (Francis) had a knock at the weekend," Grayson told BBC Radio Tees Sport.
"He's been doing a little bit of training, so we'll assess him again, but we're hopeful that he's making progress. We'll have to just clarify that one a little bit nearer the time."
As for the rest of the team news, Grayson was keen to remain tight-lipped, although the Pools boss did reveal after Saturday's defeat to South Shields that, at that time, he had a clean bill of health within his squad.
He said: "I think you'll find with me over the next few weeks of interviews that you won't get too much team information or anything like that, I'm not one for naming my team and making it public. All I would say is that we're in a good place, physically and mentally, and hopefully that will continue."