‘We’re in constant dialogue’: Portsmouth still hopeful of having Blackpool loanee available for FA Cup

Danny Cowley’s side are in second round action this weekend when they take on MK Dons at Fratton Park.

Dale, as well as Tottenham striker Dale Scarlett, were both unavailable for Pompey during their first round win against Hereford after their parent clubs denied them permission to play.

But Cowley, speaking to our sister paper the Portsmouth News, has now revealed he hasn’t given up on having Dale available this weekend.

“We’re in constant dialogue with both parent clubs,” he said.

“We’re hopeful they’ll be available but we won’t know until we kind of finalise those conversations.”

When asked if it was frustrating not having an answer so late in the day, Cowley added: “For us, we respect that it’s with the parent clubs. It’s absolutely their prerogative.

“We would love to have both of them available. They’re obviously important players and you saw on Tuesday night (against Ipswich Town in the EFL Trophy) how both of them were exceptional.

“But, yeah, we’ll wait and see.”

Both Dale and Doug Tharme, who is on loan at Accrington Stanley, weren’t granted permission to play in the cup.

According to Appleton, this was to ensure the Seasiders kept their options open should his squad suffer another injury crisis – with a January recall not ruled out.

Had Dale played for Pompey, he would have been cup-tied for Blackpool’s third round clash at the start of January.

Appleton told The Gazette: “I’m mindful that the FA Cup game is early January, so we will review the squad we’ve got and potential players coming in.

“The reality is, there are a lot of games in that short period of time before the FA Cup tie, so if we feel we need to freshen things up and those guys are available and they don’t remain with the clubs they’re at right now for whatever reason, then at least we’re keeping our options open.

“As it stands at the minute, that’s not me saying players are going to be called back or anything, it’s just giving ourselves half a chance just in case we find ourselves in a similar situation (with injuries).”