Pools head coach Anthony Limbrick discusses latest injury to Anthony Mancini
Hartlepool United head coach Anthony Limbrick has confirmed that Anthony Mancini was ruled out of Saturday's game against Halifax after missing training in the week.
The Frenchman impressed on his first start since New Year's Day against Boston two weeks ago but dropped out of the squad for the weekend's win over Halifax. In a sense, that has been the story of Mancini's time at Pools so far; the 23-year-old catches the eye whenever he's fit and available, but those spells are too few and far between. In almost two seasons at the Prestige Group Stadium, Mancini has started just 18 games and has only completed 90 minutes once this term.
Having made such an impressive start to his Pools career under John Askey last season, Mancini sustained a serious hamstring injury at the end of August. To an extent, the legacy of that incident still seems to hang over the mercurial attacker. He returned on Boxing Day, earlier than most expected, but never looked quite fully fit and was ruled out again a month later. He made one final comeback attempt under Kevin Phillips but managed less than 10 minutes before trudging off against Southend in March.
After spending the summer recovering in his native France, Mancini proclaimed "I'm free" after making it through pre-season relatively unscathed. Both Darren Sarll and Lennie Lawrence proved reluctant to put too much faith in him, although he was just beginning to hit his stride, producing a spellbinding performance against Oldham on New Year's Day, when he was struck down by a groin injury. Lawrence initially hoped he would be back in a matter of weeks but it took more than two months before Mancini was back in contention.
Once again, his fleeting spell in the side was full of promise. His return against Solihull Moors gave the Prestige Group Stadium a real lift, while his performance in the demolition of Boston was reminiscent of the blistering form that saw him light up the National League at the beginning of last season. Yet it wasn't long before renewed optimism turned to familiar frustrations, with fans now asking what's next for the former Burnley and Accrington Stanley man.
There is a school of thought that suggests Mancini is struggling to overcome psychological hurdles when it comes to his fitness. Certainly, it would take a lot of players some time to overcome mental barriers following an injury like the one Mancini sustained last season against Chesterfield. Even so, there does now appear to be something - and perhaps that something is as much to do with temperament as it is with his body - holding Mancini back. There's little doubt he has the talent to play at a higher level, and at 23 he still has time on his side, but Mancini will need to prove he can get fit and stay fit if he's to establish himself in the Pools side.
"It was a real shame with him this week," Limbrick told BBC Radio Tees Sport.
"It was a difficult week for him. He didn't recover well from the game. He had a recovery day on Monday, a second day recovering, which a lot of the players do. Tuesday, he only trained at 50 per cent, he couldn't finish the session, he was tight and sore. Wednesday, we had a day off so he looked after himself on that day. Then Thursday, he pulled out of the session because he just wasn't in the right shape to do it and then Friday, he wasn't able to train.
"We feel really bad for him. He's such a good lad, he's such a good player, he's been great for this team. It's just unfortunate that his body can't react at the moment. He hasn't necessarily re-injured himself, but he's tight in the same area; we're hoping it's just a bit of tightness. He just wasn't able to train on Friday, and if you can't train on Friday then it makes it very difficult to be included in the game. I really feel for him, I really do."