Further centre-back injury blow for Hawks ahead of National League South opener next weekend

Hawks have been dealt another centre-back injury blow just over a week before the new National League South season begins.
Defender Sam Magri could miss Hawks' National League South opener next weekend. Picture: Keith Woodland (310721-237)Defender Sam Magri could miss Hawks' National League South opener next weekend. Picture: Keith Woodland (310721-237)
Defender Sam Magri could miss Hawks' National League South opener next weekend. Picture: Keith Woodland (310721-237)

Defender Sam Magri today pulled up in training with a calf strain and there are fears he could potentially miss the Westleigh Park league opener against Welling United on Saturday week (August 14).

Hawks boss Paul Doswell revealed fellow centre-half Jamie Collis is definitely out of the first game of the season, but he has only sustained a grade one hamstring tear picked up earlier this week, which is likely to keep him out for up to three weeks.

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In a further blow, Paul Rooney reported a tight hamstring at the end of today's session, although Doswell remains hopeful he'll be available for Welling – if he is not fit enough to feature against AFC Totton in the club's final pre-season friendly on Saturday.

However, there is some positive news for the Hawks boss with defender George McLennan completing a full week of training after featuring briefly in the last weekend's friendly win over Gosport Borough having missed most of pre-season because of a personal issue.

Doswell said: ‘I almost wish Saturday was the start of the season, we’ve had a long pre-season, we’ve picked a couple of niggles up this week which hasn’t helped - it’s fingers crossed for the weekend now.

‘Mags (Sam Magri) has tweaked a calf so he could be out for a couple of weeks, he’ll definitely miss Saturday, and he could miss the start of the season.

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‘We’re going to wait to see if it settles down and if not he’ll have a scan on Monday.

‘Jamie (Collins) has had good news on his scan, it’s a grade one, which is the lowest tear (hamstring), so that might only be two to three weeks.

‘With Jamie, he’ll probably be back for the Chippenham game on August 30 so he’ll probably only miss the first two which is better than what we thought.

‘Roons (Paul Rooney) just felt a tight hamstring today so we’ll not sure he’ll be available Saturday, but he’ll definitely be okay for the following Saturday, we think.’

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Hawks are offering free entry to anyone who attends Saturday's final pre-season friendly against Southern League South Division side AFC Totton.

Doswell says it's a great gesture by the board to allow supporters entry at no cost.

And he's hoping it might help bring in football fans who've never visited Westleigh Park previously.

Doswell said: ‘I think it’s a really nice gesture from the board (free entry for Totton friendly).

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‘It’s a free game off football to come and experience it if you haven’t been before to the ground.

‘It’s to try to entice as many new people to the ground as we can.

‘It’ll be interesting to see the attendances because not everyone still feels comfortable so it’ll be interesting to see where things go.’

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