Rock-bottom Oldham facing selection headache ahead of Hartlepool visit

Posted Friday, September 17, 2021 by PA

Oldham boss Keith Curle is facing a major selection headache ahead of Saturday’s League Two clash with Hartlepool.

Curle has set up a meeting with the club’s strength and conditioning department in a bid to get to the bottom of a casualty list which has left him having to fill his bench with teenagers.

Midfielder Nicky Adams is the latest to join the absentees after limping out of last weekend’s 4-0 defeat at Leyton Orient.

Ouss Cisse is not expected to play again until the end of the year after damaging a hamstring, while Jamie Hopcutt has been sidelined by a knee ligament problem and Danny Rogers, Jordan Clarke, Sam Hart, Harrison McGahey, Alan Sheehan and Jack Stobbs are all in the treatment room.

Hartlepool manager Dave Challinor has concerns over midfield duo Gavan Holohan and Mark Shelton.

Holohan has missed the last two games with a groin injury and has been sent for a scan with Challinor facing up to the possibility of losing him for several weeks.

He is more hopeful, however, on Shelton’s chances of making Saturday’s game after he sat out the 1-0 defeat at Sutton on Tuesday night with a bruised calf.

Pool are already without loan signing Tyler Burey for some time after the striker returned to parent club Millwall for treatment on a torn hamstring.