Neil Critchley explains why Luke Garbutt was left out for Blackpool's midweek win against Portsmouth

The left-back returned from a six-week lay-off last week in the FA Cup second round tie against his hometown club Harrogate Town.

It comes after the 27-year-old suffered a hamstring injury during the draw at Crewe on October 17.

Garbutt was then left out of Blackpool’s squad in midweek, with James Husband returning to the starting line-up and Demetri Mitchell being preferred on the bench.

Explaining that decision, Critchley said: “Luke is fine. After playing 90 minutes on Saturday, we didn’t think he’d be able to go again on Tuesday. It would have been a risk.

“When you play a game when you’ve not played for four or five weeks, you get a physical spike in your load and it’s a shock to the body which it isn’t used to. To do that again on the Tuesday would have been an unnecessary risk.

“Instead of him being on the subs’ bench on Tuesday, where you’re not guaranteed that he’s going to get on, we can instead give him a training session during the day on Tuesday which is more beneficial for him.

“That puts him in a better position to be ready to start games, i.e. on Saturday or coming up in the next few weeks.”

With Garbutt back from injury, the Seasiders edge ever closer to boasting a clean bill of health with only MJ Williams (elbow) and Matty Virtue (hamstring tendon) currently sidelined.

“No injuries were reported from the game on Tuesday, which is always a bonus,” Critchley added.

“Matty Virtue has been back in training for a few days and MJ Williams is due to start training as well.

“We’re going to have a strong squad in numbers and in quality and we’re going to need it for the continued number of games we’ve got coming up over the Christmas period.”

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