The one definite Portsmouth departure this summer - a wasted two years for unfortunate ex-Sheffield United and Derby man

As the Blues agonise over the futures of 13 players out of contract, the brutal truth is Kieron Freeman will warrant little attention.

The club possess an option to extend the defender’s stay for an additional 12 months. It won’t be taken up.

Freeman has endured a curious Fratton Park career since arriving on a free transfer under Danny Cowley in July 2021.

His two-year stay has been unremarkable, a long-time forgotten man who this season has featured for seven minutes in League One and not played at any level since January 10.

Illness even ruled him out of the Hampshire Senior Cup quarter-final defeat at Bournemouth when scheduled to start the March encounter.

Yet it’s hard not to feel sorry for a once-swashbuckling right-back during Sheffield United’s march to the Premier League.

During 32 Pompey outings, Freeman has done little wrong, but, perhaps crucially, nothing particularly of note.

By all accounts, the 31-year-old is a popular member of the squad who has continued to be thoroughly professional and positive around the club during his morale-sapping first-team exile.

He also suffered misfortune in February 2022 after collecting a freak injury at Oxford United when dislocating an ankle while collapsing to the ground unconscious following a ball in the face.

Freeman’s surprise re-invention as a right-sided central defender in a back three also did him few favours considering an established career as an attacking full-back.

Indeed, just eight of 26 starts for the Blues arrived in his preferred right-back role, the last of which coming in a 2-0 Papa Johns Trophy triumph at Ipswich in November.

Nonetheless, in a position which has been strongly contested over the last two seasons, it is understandable he has found himself cast adrift of the competition.

Last season it was loanees Mahlon Romeo and Hayden Carter, both now regulars in the Championship for Cardiff and Blackburn respectively.

This term it has been Joe Rafferty and Zak Swanson, with even the unlikely figure of left-back Connor Ogilvie preferred on occasions.

Incidentally, midway through Ogilvie’s five-game spell in the right-back role, Freeman finally earned a recall for a Papa Johns Trophy clash with Aston Villa Under-21s in October – at centre-half.

The January arrival of John Mousinho would undoubtedly have been welcomed by outcasts under Cowley and, subsequently, Ryan Tunnicliffe’s Pompey career was resurrected.

However, despite named on the bench for three of the head coach’s opening six fixtures in charge, Freeman wasn’t called into action. He later failed to make the Blues’ last 17 squads.

Last summer, there were attempts to offload the ex-Swansea man 12 months into his two-year deal, with Mansfield among interested parties, but the lifeline never materialised.

This will definitely be goodbye, however – and the best of luck to the ever-unfortunate Freeman following two wasted years on the south coast.