Portsmouth’s injury anguish ahead of Sunderland clash as Lincoln City boss bemoans ‘ridiculous’ free agent situation

Lee Johnson’s side had a great win in midweek and are aiming to capitalise on the momentum gained when they face Portsmouth today.

Here is all the latest gossip surrounding Sunderland and their promotion-rivals:

On-loan Arsenal midfielder remains a doubt for Portsmouth

Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley is still waiting on an update on the fitness of Miguel Azeez who is on-loan from Arsenal.

Azeez has been out injured with a muscle injury, however, Cowley admitted yesterday that he was back in training, having recovered from the injury quicker than they had anticipated.

Yesterday, The Pompey boss said: "We anticipated it taking longer than what we thought.

“For us, we don’t treat the scan, you treat the player and he had full strength and full range this morning, which enabled him to train."

Having trained yesterday, it’s now a waiting game to see whether Azeez will line-up against Sunderland later today.

Lincoln boss discusses ‘ridiculous’ free agent situation

Michael Appleton had been on the look out for a couple of additions to his squad and had been looking at the free agent market to bolster his Imps side.

However, he admitted yesterday that the situation is ‘ridiculous’ and that there probably won’t be much transfer action until January:

“Possibly until January, we’ll have to dig in and try and keep our head above water as much as we can until we get an opportunity to make changes.” Appleton said.

“Some of the free agents out there are still asking for ridiculous money that we just haven’t got.

“We’re not going to rule out anything. Something might crop up over the weekend and, all of a sudden, there’s an opportunity that we can take.

“But it looks more difficult as the days go by because the longer it goes towards January, those players are going to be no way near the match fitness levels that you want.

“If you bring them in and it takes them a month to get fit, it becomes a very expensive month.”

Lincoln welcome Plymouth Argyle to the LNER Stadium today.

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