Town boss Kieran McKenna has revealed midfielder Lee Evans has left the club to look for football before the end of the season.
The 29-year-old is closing in on a return to action having undergone knee surgery in October but was still a little way off match action.
Yesterday’s signing of Kieffer Moore meant the Blues had 26 players who qualified for their 25-man squad and following talks with the club, Evans has moved by mutual consent.
"Lee Evans has had some conversations with the club,” McKenna said at his lunchtime press conference. "Lee’s progressed really well with his injury but is still probably a month or away from being fit.
"And following the discussions with the club, both parties agreed that it’s going to be so important for him to get games in the second half of the season, if possible.
"He’s a terrific player, a terrific professional, has missed a lot of games through injury. We hope now the issue is really resolved because he’s had the surgery, but it’s really important for him to get back playing games again now and he’s hopefully going to be fit for the last few months of the season.
"And with the depth that we have in those positions, it was unlikely that he was going to get the game time here, so Lee came to an agreement with the club where he’ll continue his rehabilitation here, do his last month of work until he’s back in full training and then he’ll have the opportunity to go and try and sign somewhere as a free agent before that window is shut.
"I think, hopefully, he’ll get quite a few games before the end of the season and whoever takes him will be getting a very, very good football player, hopefully now free of injury. A fantastic character and hopefully now well set-up for some really good years ahead.”
McKenna says the four-times-capped Wales international played his part in last year’s promotion from League One.
"He certainly did,” the Northern Irishman reflected. "If you look at anyone who has watched us in the last two years or since I first arrived, if you look at Lee’s form in the period after I arrived and you look at the progression of the other players who are still here, Samy Morsy, Conor Chaplin or Wes Burns, I think there’s every chance that Lee injury-free would have made the same type of jumps.
"But unfortunately that’s football. He’s been very unfortunate that he hasn’t been able to play as regularly as he would have wanted to on that journey.
"But again, I think he’s a fantastic player, a great professional, very respected here and that’s why the club wanted to give him the opportunity to play regularly hopefully in the last couple of months of the season to set himself up well for next season.
"It’s shame to not have him as part of the squad but I think it’s the right thing for Lee and he’s had a really good part here to play when he’s played but also unfortunately with the injuries he’s missed more than he would like, but he’s always had a very big part to play behind the scenes as well.”
Evans joined the Blues having left Wigan in the summer of 2021 and went on to make 55 starts and six sub appearances, scoring six times, three of those in the 6-0 hammering of Doncaster Rovers early in his first season at the club.