BILLY PAYNTER, the Hartlepool United skipper, is today hoping to find a cure to allow him to play again this season.

The striker is having an injection on a troublesome Achilles problem, which, if successful, would prevent the need for surgery which would end his campaign.

And there was some better news for boss Dave Jones today, with Liam Donnelly and carl Magnay both joining in training.

"Liam been training with us and Mags is joining in with some technical work, he's on the mend which is good,’’ said Jones at this morning’s press conference.

"Billy is having an injection in Liverpool and we'll see what reaction he has to that, rather than him having an operation.

"If we can get our senior players back that will help.

Sean Kavanagh is a doubt for Saturday’s trip to Colchester with a hamstring strain, but Luke Rooney is able to play after missing out last weekend when Pools faced his parent club Plymouth.

Jones added: “Having Liam back is a bonus for us. We're struggling a bit with Kav at the moment, we'll leave him as long as we possibly can.

"It's hard for the young lads.

"They haven't played many games at this level and then all of a sudden they are playing a lot of matches in a short period of time.

"So because of that, fatigue is going to set in, what we can't do is to push them too hard because we don't want the issue to go from fatigue so a strain or pull and then you lose them for longer.’’