Town boss Kieran McKenna says Conor Chaplin will stay with loan side Portsmouth for the remainder of the season with formal confirmation coming once today’s recall deadline has passed.

Chaplin rejoined his hometown club on loan on the final day of the summer transfer window but with the Blues inserting a recall clause. That deadline was initially up last week before Town extended it to today.

“I think that’s likely,” McKenna said when asked whether Chaplin would remain with Pompey, where he started his career. “Until the clause is done, we can confirm it after, but I think that’s the plan as it stands.

“He’s playing week in, week out now and starting to pick up some better form in a Portsmouth team that’s starting to pick up some decent form themselves as well.

“At the moment I think that’s the status of it but we’ll confirm it as and when that’s confirmed.”

Earlier, Portsmouth boss John Mousinho confirmed that he expects the 28-year-old to stay for the rest of the season.

“Today will be the deadline, we’ll speak to Ipswich and see what they want to do,” he told BBC Radio Solent.

“I’m pretty hopeful. Ipswich are absolutely flying at the moment, not to say that Conor wouldn’t go back and strengthen them. But Conor’s played pretty much every minute of every game here so at the minute for both sides.

“He’s also played for Ipswich already so he can’t go back out anywhere else. If they want to strengthen their own department going into the back end of the season, that’s up to them. At the minute I think it would be a really good decision for him to stay.”

Chaplin is contracted to Town until the summer and may well have played his final game for the club having been one of the stars of the back-to-back promotion seasons.

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