£200k former Sunderland player's League One club woes continue with EFL Trophy snub

Former Sunderland defender Denver Hume won't feature in the EFL Trophy for Portsmouth despite being fit for the League One club.

The left-back hasn’t featured in a single Blues squad this season, although is still training with John Mousinho’s first-team but is likely to leave in the January transfer window.

Hume's last outing at any level was as a second-half substitute in a pre-season friendly at Gosport on July 14.

Hume departed Sunderland for Portsmouth back in 2022 for a fee of £200k but has struggled with injury issues and is now up for sale by the League One club

Mousinho told The Portsmouth News: "Denver’s here, he trains every day and he has been great to have around.

"The prevailing thought with him is we are still trying to find him somewhere to go and hopefully that works out in January.

"‘It’s one of the reasons why, in some of these cup competitions, we’ve looked at the players who we think are going to be here longer term, such as Koby Mottoh, and put him in ahead of the likes of Denver.

"It’s no slight on anyone, there’s no issue whatsoever, we want to try to work something out with Denver in terms of him being able to play football somewhere else.

"Not non-league, from the conversations we’ve had, we do think Football League football is a realistic target for him – and that’s where he wants to go.

"A lot of conversations are now beginning to be had with two-and-a-half months left until the window opens. It comes around really quickly."