Injured, ineligible and a need to acclimatise: Why six key players were missing for Blackpool at Crewe

Matty Virtue, Keshi Anderson and Sullay Kaikai all missed out with fitness concerns, while new recruits Kenny Dougall and Ben Woodburn - who both signed on transfer deadline day - were not involved.

There was a spot for Dan Ballard on the substitutes’ bench despite only arriving back from international duty on Thursday, but Daniel Gretarsson missed out despite training with his new club all week.

Explaining the decision to include Ballard but omit Gretarsson, Critchley told The Gazette: “Dan (Ballard) played for Northern Ireland on Wednesday night for the national team and travelled back and got back in the early hours of Thursday.

“As for Daniel, he has had a week of training but he’s got to acclimatise and has got to adapt to the intensity of the training.

“He plays a lot of football on astro turf and trains on astro turf, so even training on grass every day is something different for him.

“He’s looked really good in training and we’re delighted he’s here and in the next few weeks at some point he’ll prove what a good player he’ll be.”

Liverpool loanee Woodburn, the first of two signings on Friday, should come into contention for Tuesday night’s home game against Charlton Athletic.

Dougall, the second player to arrive on deadline day and the 17th in total during the transfer window, is likely to be slowly but surely eased into first-team action.

“Kenny has not had a pre-season, so we’ll have to integrate him back into training and get him up to speed as quickly as we can,” Critchley conceded.

“Ben was just ineligible because he didn’t sign before 12pm, but he’ll be available for Tuesday.”

Anderson was a surprise absence from Blackpool’s side at Gresty Road having previously started all of Blackpool’s league games.

According to Critchley, the 25-year-old has suffered an injury that will likely keep him out of action for a good portion of October at least.

“He pulled up in training on Thursday. He’s had a scan, so he will miss a couple of weeks,” Critchley said.

“It’s hard to say though, as some people recover quicker than others and bodies react differently to certain injuries.

“I don’t think he’ll be appearing in the next week or two though, that’s for certain.”

Kaikai and Oliver Sarkic both returned to training last week in preparation for the Crewe game, yet it was only Sarkic that was included in Pool’s squad on Saturday.

Despite Kaikai’s absence, Blackpool’s boss is hopeful of having him involved against the Addicks in midweek.

“Sullay trained, but not in all of the sessions all of the time. He still joined in though,” Critchley explained.

“He will be under consideration for Tuesday though.”

One player who picked up an injury during the Crewe game was Luke Garbutt, who was forced off after just five minutes and replaced by Demetri Mitchell.

“He was holding his hamstring when he jumped in front, so that was obviously not a great way to start the game after only four or five minutes,” Critchley explained.

“It’s always hard to know how bad they are until it settles down and we get a chance to assess him.

“I thought Demi came on and did very well though.”