Swansea City head coach Vitor Matos has said that rules around homegrown players may well come into the club's thinking as they approach the January transfer window.
The Swans were forced to leave out summer signing Ross Stewart in the recent defeat to West Ham United due to current regulations, which state that clubs must have at least seven 'homegrown' players in their matchday squad.
What Counts as Homegrown
A homegrown player is defined as a player that has come through the academy at either an English or Welsh club. With Stewart coming through the ranks in Scotland, he does not count.
Czechia under-21s international Filip Lissah, however, does count towards the tally as he has come through the ranks at Swansea and Chelsea. The youngster's suspension for the visit of the Hammers earlier this month meant Stewart was pushed out, a development that will have come as a frustration given his recent recovery from a quad injury.
As a result, academy products Carter Heywood and Thomas Woodward were named on the bench that day. Stewart was back in the squad for the defeat to Queens Park Rangers on Saturday, but his absence has highlighted a potential point to consider for the club ahead of the upcoming January transfer window.
Impact on January
Reacting to Stewart's enforced absence, Matos said: "It's a situation, a really specific one, that unfortunately happened or all came together on that game. We needed to handle that the best we can. So with Filip back in it's a completely different story regarding that and we are much more covered."
He added: "Like all players who love to play and love to show their passion for the game, of course, he was not happy. But he was also professional and understanding of the situation, so he's back in training, trained really well this week. So that's what I like more about Ross. He sees the situation and he understands what he can control and what he can control is training hard like he's doing."
Matos admits the rules may well come into the thinking when drawing up plans for a January window that is likely to be quiet in terms of incomings. "I think it's of course something we are aware of," he said. "We were aware of it already but sometimes it's not always easy to go for the market in a way that makes sense as well. That's something that of course we will try to take care on in the next window knowing that it's again a January window and we all know how it is. But of course it's something that we are aware of and we will assess."
