Hartlepool United manager Dave Challinor has confirmed that David Parkhouse has left the club early.
Parkhouse’s loan spell from Sheffield United was due to finish in January in any case. But his time at Victoria Park has come to a premature end.
“I spoke to him last week and he’s had some issues off the pitch at home with family not being well,” Challinor told The Hartlepool Mail.
“We’ve allowed him to go back to Ireland to be at home with his family and spend some time with them. He’ll then go back to Sheffield United in the new year when his loan is up.
“We thought we really had someone who could be that goal getter for us. But with things like international duty and little niggles and that, it just hasn’t transpired.
SAKA, ANTONY AND 10 PREMIER LEAGUE STARS HEADING TO THEIR FIRST WORLD CUP
“Hopefully he goes back and potentially goes out on another loan. He certainly has the ability to score goals at this level. It just hasn’t worked for him here.”
What went wrong for David Parkhouse at Hartlepool?
Parkhouse is now back in Northern Ireland with his family for the festive period.
It means the 21-year-old’s time with Hartlepool ends with two goals in nine appearances – four of which were starts.
Clearly Parkhouse was experiencing some off-field problems. But it now seems some time since the Northern Ireland Under-21 international was being linked with Celtic.
The striker impressed on loan with Derry City in 2019, scoring 19 goals and being named in the League of Ireland team of the year.
This led to interest in Parkhouse from Blackburn Rovers, Everton and Celtic.
The Blades were keen to tie their young asset down to a new contract, but he was said to be concerned about a lack of first team opportunities.
Yet interest from Celtic Park cooled and Parkhouse extended his stay at Bramall Lane until 2022 in January.
This was where things started to go wrong for the Northern Irishman, who immediately joined Stevenage on loan after signing his new deal.
Parkhouse played just four times in League Two in the latter half of 2019/20, scoring two goals.
A drop down to the non-league doesn’t seem to have helped, with similar issues occurring at Hartlepool.
Parkhouse is still young and clearly has talent, but it could be some time before he gets the chance in the Blades first team.
