Where is Ryan Donaldson? Dave Challinor explains Hartlepool United captain's absence
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The Pools skipper hasn’t started a National League game in almost two months, a run stretching back eight matches. And for the first time since manager Dave Challinor took charge at Pools 15-months ago, Donaldson was left out of the matchday squad entirely for the matches against Weymouth and Sutton United.
The 29-year-old has been nursing a heel injury picked up in training but the Hartlepool manager explained that it was a tactical decision to leave him out of Saturday’s 1-0 win.
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Hide Ad“Ryan is fine,” Challinor told The Mail. “We left him out last weekend because he had a bit of plantar fasciitis so he had an injection on Wednesday.
"We left him out [against Sutton] just because of what we thought we might need from the bench."
Donaldson could be handed an opportunity to come back into the squad following suspensions for Luke Molyneux and Gavan Holohan.
“With players coming out of the squad, players can come back involved which will be the case for not only Ryan but the other lads who missed out,” Challinor added.
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Hide Ad“We’re fortunate in the fact that we’ve got a really good group who are all massively keen and motivated to play. Even if they’re disappointed, they show that by training really unbelievably well.
“When you’ve got eight games in February, the likelihood is that they’ll be called upon at some point and they’ve got to make sure when they are called upon that they make it really difficult for us to leave them out of the next game.”