Portsmouth boss highlights key to landing players before close of transfer window

But there’s no clubs moving for Paul Downing, who continues to be linked with a departure after being pushed to the Fratton fringes once more.

Jackett faces being restricted in the rest of his transfer window recruitment, with just one space available in his squad for players over 21.

That’s unless he decides not to register Reeco Hackett-Fairchild, who would be required to count towards the 22-man squad total to allow him to be recalled from a loan spell with Bromley and used.

Jackett last week allowed Gareth Evans to depart as he joined Bradford, to get a wage off his £2.5m cap

A midfielder is seen as a transfer priority, while there has been talk of adding pace up front.

But it appears it may be clubs coming in for players which will shape the direction Pompey take before October 16.

He said: ‘There isn’t any interest in Paul at the moment. I think it’s the same situation really.

‘We’ve looked all over in the team (for new players), but central midfield we have four players competing for those positions.

‘It very much depends on what we’re looking for coming in and who phones up (over players) going out before October 16.’

Jackett is currently working with 22 senior players, with Haji Mnoga an under-age option, plus young keepers Duncan Turnbull and Taylor Seymour.

The Pompey boss is wary of the impact of both injuries on his options with eight games in October, and the potential to lose players to Covid-19.

He added: ‘We haven’t got any injuries at the moment, but if you take a few knocks you’re soon hit.

‘You can see the amount of games we’ve got coming.

‘I hope we don’t get any injuries, but at the same time we don’t think we’ve overstacked in terms of squad either.

‘It’s hard to estimate how things will go with injuries and Covid, so as a squad we’re trying to plan for all eventualities.’