Blues manager Gary O’Neil says he’s happy to need to have difficult conversations with players he’s having to leave out of his squad rather than being short on personnel.

O’Neil has a squad of 27 with Jack Taylor now the only one not training, the Irish international having undergone knee surgery at the end of last season.

Azor Matusiwa, who had an op at around the same time, returned to the fold this week but is still a little way off involvement in matches, while Jaden Philogene is also now training after an ankle issue and seems likely to be involved at Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Against Liverpool last Friday, O’Neil was forced to leave Chuba Akpom and Sindre Walle Egeli out of the 20-man party, the pair having been on the bench for the previous league matches, while Anis Mehmeti is yet to be included. Similarly, third-choice keeper Alex Palmer, who has had a shoulder problem, is also still to be named in a squad this season.

O’Neil is delighted to have the sort of selection issues that having a virtually full-strength squad brings.

“It’s great, I wouldn’t want it any other way,” he said. “I’m more than happy to have those difficult conversations, they’re never personal.

“The players understand, hopefully. I speak to all of them individually, let them know what’s going on.

“We want everyone fit, we want all the good players on the pitch, but that does mean, of course, that there’s going to be disappointment for certain players. But they know that we need all 27 in the squad, all 27 to help us get where we need to get this season.

“So, the lads that maybe aren’t involved this weekend will get minutes on Tuesday against Arsenal [in the Carabao Cup]. We’ll need to change the team up a bit, so they’re all heavily involved.

“And then it takes an injury or a change of form or something I see in training to go from not playing so much to back in the starting XI.

“It’s really important that they all understand that how I value the players is not based on how many minutes they play. People would think Dara’s played every minute, so he’s more important than Walts [Christian Walton].

“It’s not the case. It’s just how are you for the group? How much do you help the group around what we’re trying to be this year? So there’s some really important players, Darnell Furlong I’ve not used anywhere near as much as I want to, but that’s just circumstance and the way it is at the moment.

“Hopefully, Darns understands that I love him to bits, he’s a massively important part of what we’re trying to do this year and you can’t just base how much I value you off of the minutes you play. There’s a lot more to it nowadays than just minutes.“

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