Preston North End defender Joe Rafferty has admitted that he has been ‘really frustrated’ in recent weeks having been left out of the Championship squad.
PNE named their Championship squad earlier this month, but named only 23 players – two less than the 25 required.
That left two spots open for either incoming free agents or those left out.
Connor Wickham signed until January to take one of those spots, leaving five players to fight for the last one.
Connor Ripley, Paul Huntington, Joe Rafferty, Josh Harrop and Jamie Thomas were all omitted from the squad.
On Tuesday night, Rafferty started against Cheltenham Town. Despite being out of the Championship squad, he was able to play in the Carabao Cup.
Rafferty lined up as a right-sided wing back and actually got himself on the scoresheet in a 4-1 win.
Rafferty showed Frankie McAvoy what he can do, and has now told iFollow that he has been ‘really frustrated’ at being left out of the squad.
The defender added that the rest of the PNE squad know exactly how he feels, and it’s ‘not nice’ to train all week and not play games.
“I’ve been really frustrated in the past few weeks,” said Rafferty. “All the boys know how I feel, it’s hard. You train all week and then you haven’t got anything on a Saturday. It’s not a nice feeling in all honesty,” he added.
Out of contract this summer, Rafferty faces an uphill battle to land a new deal.
Sunderland were keen over the summer, and it will now be interesting to see if they come back in during the January window.