By Albatross
December 4 2003

Hartlepool United have confirmed that Marco Gabbiadini will miss Sunday's game at Burton - in fact at least three or four weeks - after surgery on his right knee last weekend. The op was to clear out his knee, and the veteran frontman looks set to be on the sidelines until after Christmas. The forward, who will be 36 in January, was not expected to play every game this season, and so far his tally is 12 starts and 6 sub appearances - Pools have played 24 times, so he has only started half of the matches. Seven goals is under the circumstances a decent return, and Gabbs has shown he still has the ability to cause defenders at this level no end of problems.

However, although Gabbiadini's experience has been welcome, Pools are certainly not short of strikers at the moment. Eifion Williams may have scored just three times but is looking dangerous when playing up front again; Paul Robinson remains our leading scorer with nine; and with Marcus Richardson, Joel Porter and Jack Wilkinson all looking for places as well, and Adam Boyd currently wowing them at Boston and able to be recalled, Cooper has plenty of options.

Gabba is expected to be out for at least three weeks, so it's more than likely that he won't be back in action until January.

Meanwhile, the club have yet to confirm that Jermaine Easter has been told he is free to sek another club; the Welsh forward signed a two year contract towards the end of last season, but has still not made the breakthrough into the first team and apparently is training with Conference side Hereford at the moment.