Dover manager Andy Hessenthaler would love to bring Ryan Hanson back to the club - if he fails to land a Football League move.

Hanson was released by Hull at the end of last season and is currently on trial with League 2 Oldham.

The midfielder impressed on loan at Crabble during the 2020/21 campaign and Hessenthaler would love to work with him again.

“I’d love to bring him back to the football club,” said Hessenthaler. “He’s with Oldham at the moment and due to play a couple of games.

“He hasn’t said no to Dover completely and if we can then we’d want him here - that’s an area of the pitch where we are lacking.

“I’d be happy for him if he gets an opportunity to stay in the Football League but he knows how I feel and Dover would be a good step down for him after leaving Hull. It would be an opportunity to play regular football and hopefully he’d step back up again in the future.”

Hanson played six times for Whites last season, bouncing back from a red card on his debut at King’s Lynn to find his feet at National League level just when the club decided not to carry on playing.

Hessenthaler added: “He’s a young lad and I felt for him in that first game against King’s Lynn but after that he settled in and was getting better as he went along.

“Ryan is tall, very mobile and covers the ground and is comfortable on the ball.”

Dover start their pre-season schedule against Ashford on Saturday before visiting Deal on Tuesday.

It’s a chance to look at potential new players for Hessenthaler, who reported a large turnout at their first training session last weekend.

“We’ve got a lot of bodies, we had 35 players on Saturday,” revealed the Dover boss.

“They’ve all got good CVs, a lot of players have been at league clubs and I’ve got to bring four or five in. Some will play in the game on Saturday and they’ve got to try and impress.

“It’s an opportunity for them to showcase themselves, I’ve been impressed with the quality and we’ve got to bring some of these youngsters into the squad alongside the experienced players we’ve already signed.”

Meanwhile, Hessenthaler has described the signing of AFC Wimbledon forward Aaron Cosgrave on loan for the season as a “no-brainer”.

Cosgrave landed a dream move into the Football League after impressing at Lewes last season, but they want him to polish his skills on loan in the National League.

“I know Aaron’s representative, DJ Campbell, the former Leicester forward, well and they thought he was not quite ready for League football yet,” explained Hessenthaler.

“It was a no-brainer for us financially as well as they’ve helped us on that.

“He trained with us for the first time on Saturday and you could see that he’s got great pace and will cause teams problems this season. He’ll benefit from his time with us but he’ll also be helping us.

“We’ve got two experienced forwards in Ricky Miller and Ben Williamson, Aaron is nearly 22, he’s a good kid and I’m looking forward to working with him.

“I can see that he wants to run in behind and that’s something that defenders don’t like at any level.”

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