Town boss Kieran McKenna says defender Elkan Baggott, who is on loan at Gillingham for the season, won’t be involved in the AFF Mitsubishi Electric Cup with his national side Indonesia.

As previously reported, Baggott was named in the squad for the tournament, which takes place over the next few weeks.

Indonesia play their opening game against Cambodia on December 23rd before subsequently facing Brunei, Thailand and the Philippines in their other group matches with the tournament ultimately concluding on January 16th.

It had been expected that Baggott might join up with Indonesia for the semi-finals and finals should they progress, but McKenna says the 20-year-old won’t now make the trip.

“There have been discussions between all three parties and, of course, it’s a difficult decision because Elkan cares passionately about representing his country and has done very well for them,” he said.

“But the balance is that he’s a young player trying to make his way in the professional game and when his international tournaments are out of the international calendar that can be a challenge in terms of building momentum in your club career, which is the most important thing for Elkan, and also very important for his country as well because they will want and need a successful Elkan Baggott.

“There were conversations between all three parties and I think the decision was reached for the right reasons and hopefully Elkan can continue to have a strong season and grow and develop as a player.

“We want him to be a part of the future here and, of course, he’s going to be a big part of the future of Indonesian football as well.”

Baggott, who was born in Thailand to an English father and Indonesian mother and brought up in Colchester, has won 12 full Indonesia caps and has scored two international goals.

The centre-half is one of a number of senior Blues players out on loan. left-back Matt Penney has won the last two Player of the Month awards at Motherwell, Corrie Ndaba has recent returned from injury to make his first league appearances for Burton and Idris El Mizouni has impressed at Leyton Orient, who top League Two, while Joe Pigott has expressed his frustration at his lack of involvement at Portsmouth.

Quizzed on whether those players’ situations might be reviewed once the January transfer window opens, McKenna said: “We review them constantly from a performance aspect and how they’re getting on, so we’re well aware how all the boys are doing.

“Every loan is different and has different purposes, have different clauses in the loan and we’ll review that as we do on a weekly basis, but also review what the best scenario and best situation is going to be for all parties for the second half of the season.”

Photo: Matchday Images

freddo78 added 18:49 - Dec 15 Makes sense and sounds like it was managed well. Looking forward to him becoming part of Town's squad soon.
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kiwiblue added 23:38 - Dec 15 Any info on when Tete Yengi and Ben Morris return after their loan spell is Scandinavia?
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