Yesterday, Lacey came off injured, Ferguson not in the squad (injured?) not a peep from the club about Sterry, Menayese and Niang. Just wondering how we can possibly get out of trouble when all our first-choice defenders are not playing.

Is it 8 we have out injured?

Gray and Hamilton came back yesterday so that leaves: Menayese, Niang, Sterry, Ferguson, Lacey, Shelton, Crawford. Not sure if Paterson is injured or just dropped. If he is injured, that makes 8. Including Paterson that makes 6 defenders out and five of them are first choice players. A bit concerning especially as there is no news. You know, sometimes you get, "player x is back training on grass and touch and go if he is ready for next fixture. Player y has a ruptured cruciate so he wont be back till December". But there is nowt from the club which makes you conclude there is no prospect of us seeing the likes of Menayese, Sterry or Niang any time soon. The Mail reckons Lacey's injury looked bad so it could be he'll be out for a while as well. Worrying times.

KC doesn't like to give out details of injuries and returns as it gives opposition managers information.

The only news that has come out in the last couple of weeks is that Menayese's injury is a bad one that will keep him out for a while.

I can appreciate the desire not to help the opposition but how does telling us about the nature of injuries help the opposition? I could understand it, if it was on the eve of a game and an important Pools player got injured in training, you wouldn't want the opposition to know because they could change their game plan but Menayese has been out for ages and so has Sterry, so telling us they wont be back till January is hardly an advantage to the opposition. I remember Challinor was always quite happy to give details of player's injuries in his press interviews. He was not a terrible manager.

Yep and he's gone to London to get a second opinion. Other than that we are in the dark. What's wrong with saying "With injuries like that you never can tell but he'll be out for between x weeks and y months." That kind of thing makes you feel the supporters are valued and not taken for granted. Ah well... nowt we can do about it. UTP.

What happens if we can't field a team, do we just forfeit the points. Situations like ours are the direct result of the rigid restrictions put upon clubs like ours in the lower leagues. Are we allowed emergency loans.
This transfer window business needs a serious coat of looking at.
It is about time the lower league clubs banded together to sort this out.

Curle is very deliberate in the club not communicating injury news publicly.

Very frustrating for fans but keeps opposition in the dark.

I would'nt have guessed we would go 442 away from home vs Solihull but given Fergy was now injured plus everyone else it made sense.

If we had communicated that prior then Solihull could have prepared to play vs 442 and had an advantage.

No advantage given, a great result and still in the hat tomorrow. We just need to accept the new approach that we will never be given timescales on players injuries.

I made a point of accepting that if a player got injured just before a game it makes perfect sense not to make it public as was the case with Ferguson, yesterday. My issue is with long termers like Sterry and Menayesa. We all know that the latter is a vitally important player for us so what would be the harm in giving a very rough/approximate return date? How would that help the opposition?

The way the injuries are going, in order to field 11 bodies, I guess we'll have start to feed in the Academy players (hence three of them being on the bench yesterday). I think you are only allowed an emergency loan if your goalkeepers are all injured, not outfield players.

I have not seen any of the academy players and so cannot give an opinion on them but the thought of playing 17yrs old in our present predicament would worry me. Ellis Taylor is 19yrs old and can be seen not yet good enough for ‘mens football’ and I understand will be returning to Sunderland in January.

I agree, lets hope the injury situation improves enough not to rely on 17 yr olds.

Two came back from injury for yesterday's game and by all accounts were fit enough to do well. Assuming the worst for all the others makes no sense. Keith Curle seems fairly relaxed about the situation - it's his job to worry if it's really as dire as some are suggesting. Ergo, it probably isn't.

I have listed above the 8 players currently out injured. Of course, Curle is relaxed about it. After all it wouldn't do if he came across as being worried and maybe you are right, there is no cause for concern. My point is that the club have given no info on when the two most important players may be fit... all I ask is an approximate time frame not a precise nailed on date. Stevenage away with the back line we fielded yesterday and possibly even without Lacy will not be pretty.

Us knowing the extent of players injuries makes no difference to anything, even if we know what difference does it make, other than being nosey.
By keeping it under wraps you have other managers at a slight disadvantage. Other managers know the score and lots of your players and when they see our playing squad they make their selection to suit….Ok , it’s only a slight advantage, but they all add up and weighed against the need of certain fans to want to be kept in the loop is a no brainer.
I admire Curle for having the brains to use every little tactic in his armoury.

yes, something that i have been banging on about for years. it was never originally brought in for our level but were dragged into it without any evidence it was good for the game. can say that as well about the Bosman ruling. That came about at a higher level than pools and how much money have lower league clubs lost because of it. Just because something happens at the top there is no need for it to trickle down. its two different worlds.

[quote="Snowy"]Us knowing the extent of players injuries makes no difference to anything, even if we know what difference does it make, other than being nosey.
true, more interested is why the players get injured in the first place. something i have been going on about for weeks on other threads. it cannot be all down to bad luck or playing too many games. no one is kicking players to death anymore or making really dangerous challenges. with a similar number of games played there were lads once at clubs who went through a full season without an injury and seemed more able to take knocks and carry on.

It is a strange one. With all the advances in sports science and treatments you'd think if anything players should be able to spend more time on the pitch not less.

There have been suggestions that modern football boots don't protect players' feet as much as the old ones did, especially with injuries like metatarsals - that I don't remember ever hearing about till about 10 years ago. But why on earth would clubs let valuable professional footballers use boots that don't protect their feet properly?

Pain killing injections before games were a big thing back in the day. They don't seem to be used so much anymore. That's probably a good thing as they could be masking really bad problems. On the other hand, you don't hear about many old pros in wheelchairs or on sticks after their careers have ended.

You're left wondering whether modern footballers have 'gone soft' or, more likely, if medical teams are over-protective? I had a look on 'In The Mad Crowd' and the last time Pools had any players who went through a whole season playing in every game (starting or coming on as a sub) was 2016/17 when we got relegated - Padraig Almond and Lewis Alessandra.

I do think players have gone soft like today’s generation, in my day maybe I am old fashioned,days of work for ailments were unknown basically because you never got sick money.
The other side of the coin with footballers is many former played through injuries some were given pain killing injections not really knowing what damage they could and did cause in later life.
Players are more informed now with all the internet stuff and I would think the majority would refuse pain killing injections if they were having them on a regular basis.
Medical teams might be over protective in this day of the liability culture, being sued if they ended a players career with wrong treatment
An injury which comes up frequently is muscle strains, calf and hamstrings which some times ends up as a hernia. Is the training regime making a players muscles too fexible but having no strength ?

Sorry, I just don't see how saying "Player x has an injury (could be kept secret dont want to be nosey). He will be out for between 8 and 12 weeks" is any help to the opposition. Same with "Player y has taken a knock, hopefully he wont be out for too long" Both statements are vague but it gives fans hope regarding players returning. Clearly, there would not need to be an announcement on the eve of return to action as was the case with Featherstone recently. Currently our only match fit defenders are Tumilty and Murray. Fans need some kind of hope to hang on to.

I could understand having a team of superstars not letting the opposition who was fit and available.

I dont really follow the Premiership so I cant be sure but my impression is that their managers are quite happy to discuss injuries and length of time out.

Are all the players really ‘injured’ or has the manager lost the dressing room ?

I have absolutely no idea and would not like to speculate. Any such rumour is potentially very damaging so I would prefer to avoid any involvement.

Judging by the last two games it didn’t look like he’s lost the dressing room. Although his straight talking might have upset one or two and he’s hinted there are players he does not want.

[quote="Snowy"]Us knowing the extent of players injuries makes no difference to anything, even if we know what difference does it make, other than being nosey.
By keeping it under wraps you have other managers at a slight disadvantage. Other managers know the score and lots of your players and when they see our playing squad they make their selection to suit….Ok , it’s only a slight advantage, but they all add up and weighed against the need of certain fans to want to be kept in the loop is a no brainer.
I admire Curle for having the brains to use every little tactic in his armoury.[/quote
Spot on Snowy

When you are second botttom/bottom, I seriously doubt any teams change their gameplan because of who you have available.

Talking to my lad last night and brought up footballing injuries. thing is we are not alone in this as his stockport have not had a full squad to pick from all season. got to wonder how injured these players actually are. could be a case of someone saying you look tired and rough and you end up believing it. think the days of players having knocks and either disguising it or keeping it away from the club just to play are long gone.

Can't argue with that.

Joe Ramage at the Mail offering a bit of harmless amusement here: https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/sport/ ... 484?page=3

11 free agent defenders without a club. For most on the list it's easy to see why. Centre back Rhys Bennett looks about the best of the bunch to me. Still only 31 and spent the last 2 seasons struggling for game time at League 1 clubs. Wonder what the story is there? You'd think he'd be turning out for a decent NL side by now at least.

I wonder if the Centre Half formerly of Scunny was there when KC was there? If so, is he aware of his availability or does he not rate him? We certainly struggled to break them down with only one penalty goal scored in 120 minutes against them, last season.

Curle has never been at scunny. Downing or Prosser may be options in the short term. Plenty experience

Sorry, my bad. Senior moment.

I knew that for a time last season he was in charge of a club that ultimately got relegated but of course it was Oldham, not Scunny.

You might think that, but you’d be surprised…besides which you condemn our league standards as irrelevant or not even worthy of tactical sophistication…in which case why not just tell the players to kick the f&£k of the opposition and see what you can do.

Of course they are ….or is it they appear to, in the Premiership. Don’t forget they have to tell their ‘income streams’ a version of what’s going on, especially the big screen faithful who’ve never smelt wet grass and need to feel wanted.
But then again, look at the pool of talent they have to choose from in such circumstances, a bit different to our level.

no point telling a number of our players to do that. if they tread on a snail by accident they,d be out for a couple of weeks with mental health issues.

Following lower league footy for all these years I do believe some managers tell their players to "kick the f&£k out of the opposition".
How many times have we heard various managers say "we got bullied out there". I remember DC saying "This is up and at 'em football" when referring to Pools dire performance at Woking when Pools got bullied.

I’m with Ozzy on this one and I won’t be going again until Pools give the fans full access to all the players medical histories.

Starting from teething….that can put any player on the sidelones

I wonder how this lot would react to the Westgarth days if KC said strip off and roll in the snow at training? Not sure where you get the snow from? Probably Amazon these days.

Players are mollycoddled to death nowadays, liable to feign illness if their pre-match fluids aren't at the right temperature.
When I was playing Sunday league footy in the eighties we had a centre half who got into a scrape on the Saturday night, had his jaw broken, wired up in hospital Saturday night and still turned up and played 90 mins on the Sunday morning.

again blame the game at the top as its dripped even down to the sunday league where players drop out now if they break a finger nail in those stupid long drawn out warm up routines. always remember the ex FL ref harold hackney from barnsley at a refs meeting being asked what his warm up was. in a broad yorkshire voice he answered first 5 minutes of the first half lad. next question please.

And when did Roy of the Rovers ever get injured? The game hasn't been the same since they stopped using caseys. Jumpers for goal posts. Marvelous!

and only having one pair of boots that were handed down to you. only the rich kids had new ones without patches on.

Never said any such thing. Stop with the misrepresentation. All I ask is that fans are given some clue, however vague about when an injured player could conceivably return from injury because it gives hope.

and could be the deciding factor whether fans turn up or not.

Gotta love people who don’t get sarcasm

Well it depends if the sarcasm involves misrepresentation with the intention of making out someone else is a fecking idiot.

Roy of the Rovers was a big girls blouse compared to Alf Tupper….he could weld a pressure tank up in the morning and run a marathon in the afternoon in his steel toe cap boots.
They don’t make em like that anymore.