Hull City have received a major blow ahead of Friday’s trip to Sheffield United after Premier League outfit Brighton & Hove Albion decided to recall goalkeeper Carl Rushworth from his season-long loan.
The 23-year-old joined the Tigers on a season-long loan from side Brighton last summer. Highly regarded at the Amex Stadium, Brighton are eager to oversee Rushworth’s continued development following successful loan spells at Worthing, Walsall, Lincoln City, and Swansea City.
The move to Hull was expected to help the former England Under-21 international build on his impressive form. However, a training injury in October sidelined him for the first half of the season, allowing Ivor Pandur to continue as first-choice goalkeeper.
Rushworth returned to action earlier this month and made his debut in the FA Cup third-round loss to Doncaster Rovers. Despite the defeat, head coach Ruben Selles trusted the loanee to start in Saturday’s 1-0 away victory over Millwall and last night’s defeat against Queens Park Rangers
Brighton’s Shock Decision
The Seagulls’ decision was revealed by talkSPORT presenter Alex Crook and has since been confirmed by Hull Live. The latter report that their decision has angered Hull boss Ruben Selles, who was planning on keeping Rushworth between the sticks for the remainder of the campaign.
It is also claimed that there are no plans to loan the shot stopper out again. Instead, he will offer cover to Brighton goalkeepers Bart Verbruggen and Jason Steele.
Rushworth had only recently revealed that he was keen to remain at the MKM Stadium after finally making his debut for the club, saying:
“I said that I’m happy to play. That’s the main thing I just need to play, and if I get the opportunity here, then that’s perfect for me. I’m happy at the moment, and I’m really focused on trying to get out of this situation that we’re in because, with the quality that we’ve got in the changing room, we shouldn’t be in this situation.”
Writer’s View
This is a really perplexing decision from Brighton. Rushworth has developed well over the past couple of years, excelling in recent loan spells at Lincoln and Swansea. This season is the first in which he has suffered injury problems, but it looked as if he was going to be first choice for Hull for the remainder of the season. To bring him back solely as cover is odd. It would be understandable if he was to be loaned to another Premier League side, but to potentially stunt his development is just bizarre.
