By Albatross
August 26 2005

Bad news for one of last season's star players: having already had one knee operation, Joel Porter will need another and will be out for at least another 6 weeeks. At least Pools have some strength in depth though..... The news is a bitter blow for Joel, who had been hoping to be making a comeback sooner rather than later; now it looks unlikely that he'll be back in the first team picture until at least the end of October, or maybe later if he needs to build things up with a couple of matches for the reserves.

Player of the year last season, Porter's style of play as much as anything has made him a crowd favourite. While he may not have the extravagant ability of Adam Boyd, he's got enough in the locker to get past defenders with ease; coupled with decent pace and plenty of determination, he proved to be a nightmare for opposition defenders and his partnership with Boyd was one that was very much missed when he was injured towards the end of last season.

While it's bad news for the player, things aren't looking quite as bad for Martin Scott. With Daly settling in nicely and Proctor scoring in midweek, he's already in what last season would have been the unthinkable situation of being able to leave Boyd on the bench even without Joel playing. Add in the fact that Llewellyn can operate up front and we have young pros such as Appleby and Jack Wilkinson that we can call on, and he still has plenty of options.