Doncaster Rovers took two players on loan on transfer deadline day, creating an interesting problem for the club currently looking after Arsenal’s Ben Sheaf.
Sheaf joined Doncaster Rovers from Arsenal on loan at the start of the season, then signed a loan extension in January to the end of the campaign.
At this point, he’s one of six loanees in the Rovers squad. Jacob Ramsey, Jason Lokilo, Seny Dieng, Cameron John and Niall Ennis all join Sheaf in Doncaster. That’s a problem, as EFL rules only allow five loan players in a matchday squad.
As a result, Darren Moore will have to leave one of them out every game. He doesn’t think it’s going to be a problem, given a history of injuries and the busy schedule.
“When you look back at the first half of the season we had injuries to Kazaiah [Sterling, loanee], we had injuries to Niall, to Cameron,” Moore said.
“When you think about the volume of games we’re playing in such a short succession of time, it’s more than likely we’ll call upon everybody and it’s a quick turnaround of players for games…I think on average we’re playing every third day.
“That is why we know we will end up using everybody and everybody will get the opportunity to play large amounts of minutes.”
Right now, however, there are no injuries among the loanees. Jason Lokilo was the unlucky one to miss out on the Tranmere game on Tuesday as a result. In fairness, he only just joined, so he needs a few days to settle anyway.
We can only hope this doesn’t affect Sheaf’s gametime for the remainder of the season. He started the vast majority of league games in the first half of the campaign, so he should have a better chance than some other loanees.