Portsmouth omit six - including Josh Murphy - as 25-man Football League squad announced
The Blues have elected to name a 22-man squad - with three spaces still available
Josh Murphy has not been included in Pompey’s 25-man squad - although three spaces remain vacant.
The Football League have this evening released the squad lists for all 72 member clubs, which were lodged at the end of last week.
In the Blues’ case, they have named 22 players, while leaving out Harvey Blair, Connor Ogilvie, Keshi Anderson, Jacob Farrell, Mark Kosznovszky and Murphy.
Farrell was an anticipated absence, with the Blues seeking to offload the full-back ahead of the A-League transfer window shutting on September 15. Likewise, the injured Kosznovszky is expected to be sidelined until January.
However, Blair was in a match-day squad as recently as Derby last week, although wasn’t involved in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Cardiff. Whether he is injured or simply out of favour, is currently unclear.
Certainly the omission of Murphy is most surprising, although perhaps points to a Blues policy of not including injured players.
That would then leave Murphy, Ogilvie and Anderson - plus Blair - battling it out for the three remaining squad spots when finally available.
It’s an approach Pompey used in January, when they registered 23 players, with injured trio Blair, Florian Bianchini and Josh Knight omitted.
As a consequence, once Blair and Bianchini returned from injury, both were added to the squad, although the latter, on loan from Swansea, still didn’t make another appearance.
Back to the present, Murphy has been ruled out until November after undergoing more groin surgery, while Anderson’s torn quad originally saw him pencilled in for a mid-October comeback.
Thomas Waddingham is also injured, having had an operation on his ankle, but is classed as an under-21 player, so isn’t counted towards squad numbers.
Elsewhere, Tayo Singerr is included as an under-21 player, despite moving on loan to AFC Totton this evening, as is Toby Steward, who is with St Johnstone in the Scottish Premiership.
Other under-21s are Luke Brooke-Smith, Eoin Kenny, Franco Umeh, Waddingham and recent Academy graduates Chinedu Agu, Michael Ani and Nathaniel Chioma.
Goalkeepers: Schmid, Bielica, Killip
Defenders: Arthur, Devlin, Shaughnessy, Poole, Dia, Swanson, Meghoma
Midfielders: Pack, Swift, Adams, Bailey, Mohamed, Shein
Wingers: Kamara, Kavuma-McQueen, Segecic
Strikers: Bishop, Milovanovic, Shade
Under-21s: Singerr, Steward, Brooke-Smith, Kenny, Umeh, Waddingham, Agu, Ani, Chioma.