John Askey's shock admission over Hartlepool United midfielder

Hartlepool boss John Askey confessed, following the club’s 2-1 win over Championship side Middlesbrough to begin their pre-season schedule, the French midfielder is still to report back to the club’s training base having been left out of Askey’s final two squads of last season.

Askey made a number of revealing comments to The Mail towards the end of Hartlepool’s Football League stay regarding the attitude of some of his players, with Sylla atop of that list.

And the Pools boss has now confirmed the 29-year-old has not returned to the club this summer following the fallout from the end of last season.

“Mo Sylla, we’ve not seen since the end of the season,” Askey told BBC Radio Tees.

"It is what it is. We saw last season what he’s about, so while he doesn’t turn up then we don’t have to pay him so that works out quite well.”

Sylla still has one year left to run on his contract at the Suit Direct Stadium after the club triggered the option to extend the midfielder’s stay this summer.

Sporting director Darren Kelly recently confirmed the decision to extend Sylla's contract – despite the Frenchman expressing his desire to leave the club by refusing to play in the club’s fixture with Grimsby Town in April – was to protect the club and ensure they are able to receive a fee for the player.

“Mo didn’t want the option activated,” said Kellly.

"I said to Mo, through his agent, that we’d sit down at the end of the season and we’ll talk this through. To be honest I thought he would have been pleased, but obviously he didn’t want it activating.

“I said to him then we’ll sit down, talk it through but what we effectively need is for you to give us your performances on the pitch and give your 100 per cent for the football club because we want to stay in the Football League.

“The performances on the pitch were unquestionable, I think he was great, but through them performances he gained a bit of interest.

“So, as a football club, and me within my role, I’ve got to protect against that.

"If I don’t activate the option, he goes to somebody else who’s then got a good quality player. My job is to support the football club's needs, especially with contracts and with players coming and going.

“At that time he was effectively an asset to the football club. So it was a case of we got to the end of the season and Mo made his things clear.

“I knew there was interest, I know there were people speaking to the agent, and, again, I had to protect against that. If anybody wanted to buy Mo, they’ve effectively got to pay us a fee to do so.

“It was a very difficult scenario, but I had to make a football decision that was for the benefit of the club and if there were any clubs interested they'd have to come to me.

"There were a couple of clubs with interest but when they’ve done their due diligence, they haven’t come back to me yet.”