STRIKER Charlie Wyke will be absent for Hartlepool United’s haul to Plymouth.
Pools face the Pilgrims on Saturday, but the Middlesbrough loan signing won’t be travelling with his team-mates tomorrow.
He was knocked unconscious during Tuesday’s 5-1 humbling at Northampton. Wyke was taken to hospital by ambulance but returned to the ground around 10.30pm after being given the all-clear and travelled back with the squad.
Guidelines introduced this season by the FA insist tests should be carried out every 48 hours following concussion to assess the injury while a clinical assessment should be made daily, with a minimum period of six days in which time the player will be ineligible to return to play.
That rules him out for the weekend, leaving Pools short of options up front. After putting Pools ahead in under a minute on Tuesday, Wyke was their best player and was sorely missed as the team crumbled to defeat.
“When Charlie went down he was out,’’ said boss Colin Cooper. “The rulings are in place now and there is no second question – whether Charlie feels ten per cent, 50 per cent, 100 per cent – if you are knocked out, you’re out and you come off the pitch.
“The medical reports are that he is OK and he came back to the ground after the match.”
Cooper saw two loan deals fall through last week. Young Middlesbrough striker Bradley Fewster is about to leave on loan, but is unlikely to join Pools. 
The manager said: “People think that I am not trying. I was at a game Monday night watching strikers, I was at another game Wednesday afternoon watching strikers.
“With Luke James leaving, my job is to see what we need. With Charlie now missing the questions is are the players that we have left good enough to get us results?
“If not, then my job is to get some people in that are better and who want to succeed.
“The challenge is there.
“If nobody comes in the door we have players more than good enough to get goals at Plymouth but it is a challenge.”