‘Still potential’: John Mousinho hints at further Portsmouth departures ahead of crucial EFL decision

John Mousinho has hinted at further Fratton Park exits, despite the transfer window slamming shut on Tuesday.

And the head coach insists he’s got a difficult choice to make over which players he leaves out of his 25-man EFL squad.

The summer market came to a close on Tuesday, with Pompey recruiting Jayden Meghoma and Tyrese Shade, while Josef Bursik represented the sole deadline day departure.

A number of fringe players including Harvey Blair, Luke Le Roux and Jacob Farrell all remain on the south coast, despite the futures being under the spotlight throughout the window.

This means the Blues currently have 29 senior players in their ranks, with four required to be left out of their 25-man EFL squad which has to be submitted before Friday.

And although the summer transfer window has closed, Mousinho has left the door open to potential exits, with some foreign markets still open.

John Mousinho open to further Pompey exits

When asked by The News how he will decided his 25-man squad, the head coach said: ‘We’ll sit down over the next day to figure that out.

‘We’re still looking at whether there are going to be any outgoings to foreign markets - I don’t know what that looks like at the moment.

‘We’ll have to make a call on a couple of players and go from there. (The foreign markets are) Still open elsewhere so there’s still potential outgoings.

‘I don’t know (whether any players will depart). There’s nothing that’s concrete and nothing that is readily available to go but I think if we do have a look at the squad list and see how it looks over the next day then maybe that crystallises a couple of things.’

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Pompey boss braced for tough calls

Long-term absentee Mark Kosznovszky is expected to be left out of the 25-man squad for the first-half of the campaign, with the midfielder sidelined until the new year with a serious knee injury.

This means a further three players will still need to be deregistered to fit the confines of the EFL’s squad permutations.

And Mousinho has admitted tough decisions will need to be made before Friday’s deadline.

‘We bring players in to have an impact on the first-team. Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong.

‘We want to try and maximise the current players that we have in the building at this time. It’s a tough choice, it’s very difficult.

‘We’ve done it before but leaving players out and not being available to play is a difficult things.’

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