Blackpool must make a decision over midfielders' squad list places

A decision on whether Blackpool will include Matty Virtue and Grant Ward in their 25-man squad will have to be made imminently.
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The Seasiders must submit their new squad list to the EFL within 24 hours of the transfer window closing, which happens at 11pm on Monday.

Virtue and Ward are currently sidelined with long-term injuries, an ACL for the former and an Achilles problem for the latter.

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However, the pair playing some competitive football between now and the end of the season hasn’t been completely ruled out, especially in the case of Virtue who is the closer of the two to returning.

Matty Virtue is nearer to a return than Grant WardMatty Virtue is nearer to a return than Grant Ward
Matty Virtue is nearer to a return than Grant Ward
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Last summer, the club opted to leave a free space in their squad so that CJ Hamilton and Gary Madine could rejoin once they had recovered from their summer surgeries.

When asked if that could be repeated this time around for Virtue and Ward, head coach Neil Critchley told The Gazette: “We’ll have to make that decision before Monday, we’ll see where we’re at.

“Wardy is a little bit further behind Matty, who has been part-training and done little bits where we’ve integrated him back in.

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“Again, he needs what you would class as a pre-season really, four to six weeks of training and some games involved in that.

“We’ll just have to assess and think where he’s going to be at, but in the meantime he’s best off concentrating on his rehabilitation, so we’re in control of it.

“As I say, Wardy is a little behind Matty at the moment, so they’re not two players we’re focusing on in terms of the immediacy.”

Another player likely to be sidelined for the foreseeable future is Luke Garbutt, who suffered a knee injury during last weekend’s win against Millwall.

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Taking to social media earlier in the week, the left-back revealed he had suffered a grade two posterior cruciate ligament injury, which is likely to keep him out for around 10 weeks.

While this is a major blow for Blackpool as it leaves them without a recognised left-back in the short-term, Critchley was expecting the news to be a lot worse.

“It’s sort of good/bad news, if I’m being honest,” he admitted.

“When it happened we feared the worst afterwards when the physios were looking at him. We were quite worried about it.

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“It’s not going to be a one or two-week job, it’s going to be a lengthy period of time, but it could have been significantly worse and facing months on the sidelines.

“It’s not ideal obviously because he had only just got back from injury and had got back into the team – and then this happens in what was a really unfortunate incident on the touchline.

“We shall miss him, but when we see him again it certainly won’t be in January, put it that way.”

Garbutt’s latest setback, his second knee problem of the season, means Blackpool are now without eight players through injury.

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It prompted suggestions there could be an underlying problem at the club, but Critchley believes they’ve just been unlucky.

“If you look at the Garbutt one, the Reece James one, they’ve been really unfortunate injuries and we’ve had a few of them this season. We don’t seem to get much luck,” he said.

“Having James Husband, Garbs and Reece out at the same time, I don’t think that would happen at too many other clubs where they lose three players at the same time who can play in the same position.

“Sonny Carey, it was just an innocuous foot injury. There’s nothing you can do about that.

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“We’ve had a bit of bad luck but it’s nothing we didn’t experience last season and I’ve got faith in the squad and the strength of the squad.

“We shall carry on as normal.”

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