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Boyd and Robson missing for SIX weeks
By Albatross
September 7 2005
It never rains but it pours: after a less than impressive start to the season, Hartlepool United have suffered injuries to two more first team players. Adam Boyd and Matty Robson join a sick list that already sees Joel Porter, James Brown and Mickey Barron still out for significant amounts of time.
With Pools already struggling for form, the absence of Boyd in particular is a blow. Although he had of course been dropped for some of the early games of the season, his performance after coming on as a sub against Huddersfield showed exactly why the fans wanted him in - he scored a great goal, and was at the centre of much of our attacking play. However the injury he suffered against Yeovil has turned out to be bruising to the bone and he needs to go under the knife.

Robson's absence after an injury on the training ground also causes something of a headache for Scott; he's been filling in at left back and with Robertson still apparently not fit his options in that position have been reduced yet further. It looks like Richie Humphreys is likely to have to play there again for a spell, unless Scott wants to change the system completely and ask him (or possibly Llewellyn) to play as a wing-back.

In many ways the left back issue is a more worrying one than up front. At least we have a number of forwards: Proctor, Daly, Eifion Williams, arguably Llewellyn as well as the likes of Appleby and Foley; however the full back role is distinctly under-resourced at present. Apparently Robertson is the only left back at the club; Robson and Humphreys are both really midfielders, while John Brackstone is more of a centre half although he has played on the left before now. That leaves us the option of playing someone from the youth team, or playing someone out of position: the Transfer Window means that we can't even bring someone in on loan except in an emergency scenario (such as all a team's goalkeepers being injured) and I don't think needing a full-back counts. Shug is only due to restart training this week, so is unlikely to be ready for first team action straight away.

Both will apparently be missing for about six weeks, with Boyd needing surgery on his knee and Robson still undergoing investigations - although the signs are that it's lateral ligament damage. The question is, how will Scott and HUFC cope without them?

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