Ashton: No Explanation From Jamaica on Leigh
Thursday, 23rd Mar 2023 17:12

Town CEO Mark Ashton says the Blues are still to hear anything from the Jamaica Football Federation regarding Greg Leigh being called up but ultimately left out of their squad for their CONCACAF Nations League game against Mexico on Sunday.

As reported earlier in the week, Jamaica sent the Blues the documentation relating to his call-up, including travel documents, but when the squad was announced on Monday, the 29-year-old wasn’t included.

Town had already sent the documentation relating to Leigh's call to the authorities as he was the club's third player named in an international squad - along with Wes Burns and Nathan Broadhead who are with Wales - in order to have Saturday’s game at Barnsley postponed.

“From our perspective, there’s nothing strange,” Ashton told TWTD. “We had call-up papers on him, we’ve had plane tickets sent for him.

“That all gets sent to the EFL and the regulatory bodies to make sure that everything’s in order in advance. Everything was confirmed.

“And then we’ve seen that he’s not on the call-up list. We’ve had zero contact from the Jamaican FA, so we’ve had no communication.

“As we stand, the best way to explain this, is that if we have a game on Saturday, he’s unavailable to play. He can’t play. He’s not available to play for us in a competitive fixture.

“That’s it as far as we’re concerned. He has been called up and then he’s not on the sheet and we’ve no explanation on that, we’ve had contact from them.

"“It looks very strange from the outside, I can understand that, but I think everyone knows we follow our protocols, we follow the procedure, all the paperwork was sent to the EFL in advance, that’s where it is.”