FC Halifax Town: Injuries to contend with for Wild ahead of big kick-off on Saturday

FC Halifax Town boss Pete Wild says The Shaymen will be ready for their big kick-off against Dagenham and Redbridge on Saturday, despite a flurry of injuries throwing a spanner in the works.
1 September 2020 .....   Manager Pete Wild with his Halifax Town players back pre-season training for the  start of the National League  Picture Tony Johnson1 September 2020 .....   Manager Pete Wild with his Halifax Town players back pre-season training for the  start of the National League  Picture Tony Johnson
1 September 2020 ..... Manager Pete Wild with his Halifax Town players back pre-season training for the start of the National League Picture Tony Johnson

Wild says there will probably be reinforcements before the end of the week to bolster his squad, and admits having such a disruption isn’t ideal preparation for the start of the campaign.

“We’re assessing them. We may need to bring reinforcements in for Saturday to help the squad.

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“As it stands, we’re down to about 16 lads for Saturday, if that,” said Wild, who did not want to identify which players were injured.

“We pushed the boys hard over pre-season. People might say why are we picking those injuries up, but we felt we needed to push them harder than when we came back for the play-offs, that was one of our learnings.

“We’ve pushed them because we felt they needed to be ready, but unfortunately a by-product of that is the injuries we’ve picked up.

“They’re not muscle injuries, they’re just knocks, bumps here and there, but they’re really preventing us from getting our strongest 11 out, which has been a frustration for me to be honest.”

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Wild said there would be “potentially two” new signings this week, but “hopefully three”.

“It’s a busy month, October’s a massive month for us, and to be a few lads down isn’t ideal,” he said.

“However, one thing we have got is strength-in-depth in the squad this season and players who can come in and make the shirt their own and prove themselves whilst other players are out injured.

“That will stand us in good stead come Saturday.”

Read more from Wild in tomorrow’s Halifax Courier, as well as a special eight-page supplement previewing Town’s 2020-21 season.