By Albatross
June 25 2004

Chris Westwood has a stress fracture in his left foot, a scan has revealed - and Hartlepool United have announced that the influential defender is to have another scan early next week to see if an operation will be necessary to correct the problem. If surgery is required for Westie, it will almost certainly mean he'll miss the start of the new season - even if he only needs to rest, he will apparently be out of action for a month and with the new season due to start in six weeks or so he'd be pushing it.

With Mickey Barron recovering from his surgery, Neale Cooper will have some interesting decisions on his hands. Westie was one of our more consistent players last season, forming a good understanding with Nelson, and even filling in at right back on occasion. Darren Craddock stepped in to good effect on the right, and Mark Tinkler could drop back to partner Nelson - but Westie's pace will definately be hard to replace.

Some speculation has it that Jack Ross may be asked to play as a wing-back on the right, but a 3-5-2 without Westwood still leaves a few challenges. With Scott Walker having left the club, this may be one position where Coops is looking to strengthen - watch this space....

Meanwhile there has been some speculation that onetime Poolie Steve Fletcher may be on his way back to Pools. Fletch is out of contract with Bournemouth, and would in many ways fit the bill as an experienced target man. The frontman hits 32 tomorrow, and since leaving Pools for the South Coast 12 years ago has developed quite a following after starting more than 400 games. However, Fletch is pretty settled down there, and it seems to be based more on "who's a big forward that might be interested in signing for Hartlepool". Certainly there's little talk of him leaving on their sites. Another pie in the sky rumour?

There is still no definate news as yet as to new signings, and we are also still waiting to hear whether Darrell Clarke, Tony Sweeney and Paul Robinson have agreed new contracts. However, with pre-season training starting next week, and most out-of-contract players becoming free agents at about the same time, we may soon have some more concrete information. For the meantime though, it's still all guessing games.