Ex-Sunderland defender makes surprise return for League One club after transfer listing

Former Sunderland defender Denver Hume made a rare appearance for Portsmouth recently.

The left-back was handed his first senior Pompey outing for seven months under head coach John Mousinho for the game against Leyton Orient.

Following Portsnouth's loss to Chesterfield in the FA Cup, the Blues faced Leyton Orient in the Bristol Street Motors Trophy with Hume handed a start.

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 was put up for sale by the League One club last summer.

The move to start Hume represented a surprise turnaround in policy from Portsouth's manager, who said in October that Hume wouldn't feature in the EFL Trophy for Portsmouth despite being fit.

Mousinho told The Portsmouth News at the time: "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."

It is understood that Portsmouth are open to offers for Hume in the upcoming January transfer window with both player and club looking to call time on the defender's time at Fratton Park.

Pompey are currently top of League One with 35 points from 15 matches.