Newcastle United midfielder Isaac Hayden is on loan at Championship side Portsmouth until the end of the season.
Hayden hasn’t played for Newcastle since December 2021 and has spent the past few seasons out on loan to various clubs. In January he joined Championship strugglers Portsmouth on a half-season loan deal.
Since Hayden’s arrival, Pompey’s fortunes have improved as they have moved out of the Championship relegation zone and up to 18th in the table. Portsmouth have won four of the six matches Hayden has started in the Championship since his arrival.
While Hayden’s place in the Portsmouth matchday squad appears secure as things stand, EFL rules threaten to complicate matters.
EFL rules regarding loan players
Football League rules state that clubs in the Championship, League One and League Two are only allowed to register a total of five loan players in their matchday squad. As things stand, Portsmouth have six loan players named in their 24-man Championship squad.
As a result, one loan player has to miss out on the matchday squad in any given game week.
Portsmouth’s 2-0 win over Oxford United on Saturday saw Mark O’Mahony, Kaide Gordon, Adil Aouchiche, Robert Atkinson and Hayden named as the five loan players in the matchday squad.
Freddie Potts, who is on loan from West Ham United, has missed the last two matches due to a calf injury. Potts has been a regular in the Portsmouth side this season and gives Hayden direct competition for a midfield place.
And Pompey boss John Mousinho has hinted that Potts ‘will keep his place’ once he’s back to full fitness.
“Nobody is an automatic selection, but I certainly think that, when Freddie’s available, he more than deserves to be on the team-sheet at the moment,” he told The News.
“As long as he plays as well as he’s been playing, he will keep his place.
“We’ve been playing him game after game after game. January certainly was an absolutely nuts month in terms of the amount of matches we had. If I ever thought there had been a significant dip with Freddie, I would have brought him out of the side, and I didn’t.”
Brighton striker O’Mahony was the previous loan player to miss out of the matchday squad for Portsmouth prior to Potts’ injury. But after Portsmouth signed four loan players in January, Mousinho faces a difficult challenge to balance the loan players in his matchday squad when everyone is fit.
As a result, Hayden’s place in the squad is under more scrutiny than most.
Any other Newcastle United loan players at risk?
Hayden isn’t the only Newcastle player out on loan in the EFL this season. Harrison Ashby is also on loan in the Championship at Hayden’s former loan side Queens Park Rangers.
But as QPR have just five loan players in their squad, Ashby is not at risk of dropping out due to the EFL loan rules. The same goes for Joe White at MK Dons, Charlie McArthur at Carlisle United and Alex Murphy at Bolton Wanderers.
Goalkeeper Max Thompson is on a season-long loan at Chesterfield, who have six loan players in their squad. But with Thompson The Spireites’ current starting goalkeeper, he is unlikely to be dropped out of the squad entirely due to the rules.
Isaac Hayden facing an uncertain future
Portsmouth have no obligation to buy clause in their loan agreement with Newcastle for Hayden, meaning the midfielder will officially rejoin the club in the summer as things stand. The 29-year-old remains under contract at St James’ Park until June 2026 but he is unlikely to feature for the first team again having been frozen out of Eddie Howe’s squad in recent seasons.
Hayden spent the first half of the 2024-25 season at Newcastle but his only appearances came for the Under-21s side in the National League Cup. The midfielder also made his senior international debut with Jamaica back in November after switching his allegiance from England.
He is set to be on the lookout for a new club once again in the summer.
