TOM White is hoping to get his football career back on track with a loan spell at Hartlepool United.

The 23-year-old was quoted in the Hartlepool Mail as saying his time at the University of Bolton Stadium was “probably the worst of his career”.

But White has since clarified his comments and, speaking to The Bolton News, says he has no regrets about making the move across Lancashire at the start of the season from Blackburn Rovers.

"I don't have any regret on that front," he told us, "and if I had the choice again, I'd do it again. But it was certainly the toughest time in my career and I am looking forward to focussing on my football again now."

White returned to train with Blackburn a couple of weeks ago and has now moved on to Hartlepool in the National League, where he hopes to add another promotion to his CV.

Although the midfielder started the season in Ian Evatt’s side he quickly fell out of favour and made just 14 appearances before leaving the club.

Speaking to the Hartlepool Mail, the youngster said he was happy to return to his native North East to play under ex-Bury defender Dave Challinor, revealing he had a chance to play for Pools after leaving Gateshead in 2019.

“I’ve had interest previously from Hartlepool – a few years ago I nearly signed for Craig Hignett,” White admitted.

"It was a long summer, I ended up signing for Blackburn. I’d met the manager and the club didn’t need to sell itself to me, I know all about Pools but I just had an opportunity at that time to go to Blackburn which I couldn’t really turn down.

"I was considering the offer at Hartlepool because I knew how big the club is for this league but in the end Blackburn was just something I had to try signing for a Championship club, former Premier League winners too.

“So [Hartlepool] is always a club I’ve looked at and it’s probably been the worst six months of my career at Bolton so when there was contact from Hartlepool around December time, I told my agent it was something I wanted to get done.”

A return to Rovers also looks unlikely for White, who is out of contract at Ewood Park this summer.

He is yet to make an appearance for the Championship side, spending his time out on loan with Barrow – where he first played under Bolton boss Ian Evatt – Wanderers and now Hartlepool.

“It’s been frustrating so far to be honest, Blackburn is a brilliant football club and I knew it was always going to be tough but I was going there with maybe an outside chance of getting a sniff at the first team,” he said.

"So far, I haven’t really found a pathway into that or had an opportunity to impress in training. They’ve been nothing but good to me and they’ve let me go out and play football which has given me a good platform and helped build my reputation up.

"It’s been a good experience but in terms of opportunities there I don’t think I’ve had the chance to have a real go at things yet.”