Hebburn Town dealt injury blow as new signing faces spell on the sidelines

The midfielder joined the Hornets from Blyth Spartans in late June after spending the last seven years with the National League North club.

Mullen is yet to feature in either of Hebburn’s pre-season friendly fixtures against Heaton Stannington and Morpeth Town – but has been taking part in training alongside his new team-mates under the watch of Bolam and assistant manager Mick Mulhern.

However, a long-standing groin problem will limit his involvement in the Hornets’ on-field preparations for the new Northern League season and the issue will require an operation over the coming weeks.

Bolam revealed that he was aware of the issue when the deal to sign Mullen was discussed and confirmed that he will look to get it cleared up as soon as possible.

The Hornets boss told The Gazette: “Damen has a bit of a groin and hamstring issue – but we were kept fully informed of that when we signed him.

“We still wanted to sign him, there was never any doubt about that, not at all.

“He’s old school, he’s a top lad and he’s a player’s player.

“He made us aware of everything and we can’t ask for more than that.

“The lad has had the same operation before on the other side of his groin – it’s a Gilmore’s groin operation.

“It should be around four to six weeks in recovery once the operation takes place.

“He has been training on it – but because we are playing friendlies, we don’t want to aggravate it any more than is needed by getting him involved.

“Once he is through all of that and gets more involved in matches, he will be a real asset to our squad.”

Bolam’s squad will hope to build on a promising start to their pre-season schedule when they host Northern League Division Two club West Allotment Celtic in a behind closed doors friendly at the Green Energy Sports Ground on Saturday afternoon.