Promising Portsmouth defender Matt Casey in line to depart to non-league outfit Eastbourne

The giant 6ft 8in defender is now fit again from a leg injury sustained in pre-season with the Blues keen to send him out to continue his development.

And it seems he may be joining up with former Pompey striker Lee Bradbury, with Kenny Jackett weighing up an offer to take the 19-year-old to Priory Lane to continue his development.

The final decision has yet to be made with Eastbourne one of the options for the 19-year-old, but Jackett expects him to be on his way on a temporary basis shortly.

Jackett said: ‘Matt’s just come back from injury and that was longer than we thought.

‘He got injured against Woking and only just come back to training.

‘He’ll get a loan out. Lee (Bradbury) is interested in taking him to Eastbourne. He’s keen on him and there one or two others as well.

‘We’ll get him the best loan we can. He needs to stay fit and we want to get him as high as we can.'

The plan for Casey is to get games away from Fratton Park, while still being available for fixtures such as the Premier League Cup - with Pompey facing Doncaster next month.

Victory there would see them through to the group stage of the competition they reached the semi-final of two years ago.

Jackett added: ‘If we could win that game that gets us through to another batch of games. So we want to be strong for that if possible.

‘Obviously there’s Crawley (in the EFL Trophy), too.

‘There’s a few of those games coming up for us, which means Matt is getting fit at the right time.

‘Let’s say he goes out to Eastbourne, he can play for them on a Saturday and be available for those games during the week with us.

‘He’ll get plenty of football and that’s what he needs now, he needs regular football if he can.’