Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley has admitted an injury to Shaun Williams could cause them to rethink their plan to loan out youngster Jay Mingi.
The 21-year-old is yet to make his Portsmouth debut since joining in the summer, heading out on loan during the first half of the season to pick up first-team action with Maidenhead United.
Following his return from Maidenhead, Mingi was attracting interest from the Football League and the National League, only for an injury to scupper a January loan move away.
Now, Pompey boss Cowley has admitted that the club may need to rethink their plan for Mingi.
An out-of-window loan move to a non-league side would have given the youngster some regular game time, but with Shaun Williams facing a lengthy spell out, he could be called upon at Fratton Parl.
As quoted by Hampshire Live, Cowley said:
“Our preference would be for Jay to go out and play regularly because it’s important for his development that he does that.
“He’s obviously recovering from a dislocated shoulder at the moment.
“There was actually a number of clubs that were very keen to take him in the window. He can still go out to the National League, he would’ve gone out to the football league this window if he hadn’t picked up that injury, or at least that is what we anticipated.
“We are going to make a call off the back of diagnosing Shaun Williams’ injury, seeing what options there are for Jay and trying to make a good decision for everybody. There’s definitely a strong possibility now that he will stay in the building.”
Pompey’s options in the middle
It looks as though keeping Mingi around the meantime will be a good idea for Cowley and co.
Not only is Williams facing a spell out, but Joe Morrell is serving a three-game suspension, leaving Mingi, Louis Thompson and Ryan Tunnicliffe as the only natural central midfielders. 18-year-old Liam Vincent operated in the middle of the park at times during his time with Bromley, but he is yet to make his senior Portsmouth debut since joining last summer.
With a midweek clash against Burton Albion coming up, it awaits to be seen who Cowley selects in the middle of the park as Pompey bid to turn around their poor run.
