Hartlepool United Dave Challinor discusses Mason Bloomfield's injury against Wrexham and delivers promising update on Luke Williams

Williams was forced off after 17-minutes at Eastleigh over the weekend while Bloomfield suffered an ankle injury just moments into Tuesday night’s 1-0 defeat against Wrexham.

“Mason has rolled his ankle so we’ll just have to see how he is,” Challinor said following the game.

“He picked up the ball on the halfway line and it culminated in us having a really good chance. It’s an ankle [injury], it’s not the end of the world.”

Challinor’s decision to start Williams on a boggy surface at Eastleigh on Saturday had been questioned due to the midfielder’s injury record and lengthy spells spent on the sidelines in recent seasons.

But just as he did following Saturday’s match, the Pools boss has defended his decision while also hitting back at a small minority who were critical of Williams following his apparent set-back.

“Luke Williams, I’ve heard and seen lots of ridiculous comments [about him] over the past 24, 48-hours,” Challinor said.

“Luke is fine, he’s okay but he’s been out for a long-long time and sometimes when you feel things after not playing a competitive 90-minutes for three years, you fear the worst.

"He’s probably panicked and there are protocols we’ll have to go through to get him back and psychologically, there will be scars with him.

"I trust my players so I ask them their opinion and I trust my staff so I would never put any players at risk.

"Playing Luke on Saturday wasn’t a risk because he’s taken part in every session for the last 12 weeks and for the last four weeks he’s taken part in every session at EDC on a softer pitch than we played on against Eastleigh on Saturday so we won’t put people at risk.

"You could say signing Luke was a risk or a gamble but we wouldn’t risk him if we didn’t think it was safe to do so.

"He’ll be okay and it’s not a case of looking for a scapegoat by saying he’s injured again, if you’re looking to point fingers, point the fingers at me and if things don’t go as I want them to, I’ll walk away from the football club, not a problem.”

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