Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor discusses injuries ahead of pre-season training return

The Pools players will return for full-time training today.

Pools were hit hard by injuries last term and rarely had fewer than three players sidelined at any one time. Even during pre-season last summer, Luke Williams, Myles Anderson, Josh Hawkes, Ryan Donaldson and Luke Molyneux all faced time out through injury.

This time out, Pools have been ticking over with light training over the past month with only new signing Josh MacDonald and Williams spending any significant time away from the grass so far.

Williams is currently out-of-contract at Pools but has returned to the club in order to try and earn a new deal after several injury-ravaged seasons.

Injuries have prevented Luke Williams from starting a match for Hartlepool United since signing in 2018, but he could still be handed another chance by Dave Challinor.

And with Challinor preparing to welcome his players back for full-time training after a week off, he is hoping for a clean bill of health.

“We’ve had little niggles but nothing major,” the Pools boss told The Mail.

"Luke Williams is still in and about with us but he’s on his own programme and we’re being led by him really – we haven’t made a [contract] decision on him yet.

“Josh MacDonald has been out for a little bit but he’d been training for four or five weeks with Halifax going into the play-offs so him missing one tick over week in training isn’t really overly significant for him.

"With the players having the week off, there was no point in us risking anything beforehand so if anyone is feeling a niggle, we’ll just be taking them out really.

"There’s nothing major and I don’t envisage there will be because of how controlled we are with our training at the moment and the demands we’re putting on the players.

"Obviously those demands will increase when we return [on Monday].”

Earlier this month, Pools reappointed Ian Gallagher as the club’s head physiotherapist.

‘Buster’ had spent a total of 25 years at Victoria Park before his shock exit in 2017. Now he’s reassumed his role at Hartlepool as they look to improve their troublesome injury record in recent seasons.

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