Craig Hignett provides Fraser Kerr injury insight and remains willing to give some of his players 'the benefit of the doubt' ahead of Dover Athletic and Chesterfield matches

Pools were beaten 3-1 at Dagenham & Redbridge last Saturday with Hignett stating his side were carrying ‘three or four’ players during the match.

After keeping changes to a minimum in recent weeks, the United manager could now look to utilise his large squad for the quick turn around of home matches coming up.

And after seeing their five game unbeaten streak come to an end, Pools will be wanting to bounce back with their Victoria Park double header as they welcome Dover on Saturday before facing Chesterfield the following Tuesday.

Nicke Kabamba and Josh Hawkes have recently returned to the fray and could be in contention for a start after bringing some much needed energy from the bench at Dagenham.

But Hignett remains reluctant to recklessly chop and change things on the back of one poor performance.

“The good thing for me is those players who’ve been waiting and chomping at the bit are ready to come in,” he said.

“It’s a squad game, if you perform you stay in, if you’re not then you won’t.

“We’ll see how it goes but I’m willing to give some of them the benefit of the doubt on this one, it was a bad day at the office and we’ll have to wait and see what type of team I play on Saturday.”

Defender Fraser Kerr picked up an ankle injury during the defeat at Victoria Road and is set to miss the next few matches at least as Pools await his scan results.

Kerr has played every match so far this season but Hignett is confident his side will be able to cope with the Scottish centre-back’s absence.

“It might not change our formation because Kenton Richardson’s back now who can play centre-half comfortably, but we’ll have to wait and see,” added the Pools boss.

“It looks as though Fraser might miss a couple of weeks at the minimum so I’ll have a chat with Sweens [Antony Sweeney] and Ged [McNamee] and see what happens.”