BY DANIEL NHAKANISO
WARRIORS defender Adam Chicksen has been left in limbo after his hopes of sealing a deadline move away from English National League side Notts County fell through.
Chicksen was reportedly targeting a deadline move after recently losing his place in the Notts County starting line-up, but the move to another English fifth-tier side fell through on transfer deadline.
The 29-year-old left-back’s situation has been made more complicated after Notts County completed the signing of another fullback, Jordan Barnett from Oldham Athletic, due to doubts over the Zimbabwe international’s future.
Notts County boss Neal Ardley admitted that he was facing a selection dilemma, but refused to rule out Chicksen being involved at Notts after a move to leave the club fell through.
“Chicks’ is a difficult situation, because he came to see me a little while ago and really, really wanted to play,” he said in an interview with the Nottingham Post on Friday.
“I told him that he would get his game time, but he was edging along the lines of I feel like I need to get away to play.
“We did all of our business in mind of the fact that Chicks wanted to get away to play games.
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“That hasn’t materialised for him. But he’s still here. If he gets away, he gets away, but we couldn’t sort of sit around and wait to see whether he found another club or not, and then act on it.”
Ardley said although Chicksen was firmly in his plans, he had to move to quickly find a replacement when the Zimbabwean expressed his desire to move in order to get more game time.
“We had to presume he was going to get away. But he’s back in working hard and any moves that he had possibly lined up haven’t gone through,” said Ardley.
“But watch this space. He might push himself and might get involved on Saturday or he might not. I don’t know what’s going to happen going forward.”
Notts County are sixth in the National League and chasing promotion to League Two, but the club’s future is hanging in the balance due to the financial impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Chicksen joined the club from Bolton Wanderers last September on a free transfer.
Prior to the move, the Warriors defender had been without a club since January 2020, when he was surprisingly released by League One side Bolton Wanderers.
After a solid start at his new club, Chicksen was rewarded for his consistent form at the start of the campaign by earning his maiden cap in Zimbabwe’s Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) campaign after starting in a crucial tie against Algeria in November which ended two-all.
During the encounter played at the National Sports Stadium, Chicksen made international headlines after being turned inside out twice by Algeria’s Manchester City star Riyad Mahrez on his way to giving the North Africans a 2-0 lead inside the first 40 minutes.
He subsequently lost his place in the starting line-up upon his return from international duty and now faces a tough battle to revive his career.
Chicksen was born in Milton Keynes and has played for several clubs in the lower leagues — MK Dons, Leyton Orient, Brighton, Bradford City, Charlton and Bolton.
The experienced defender, who is of English-Chinese descent, qualifies to play for the Warriors through his father.
Chicksen received his first international call in 2018 when he took part in a four-team tournament hosted by Zambia.
However, he could not be involved in competitive games, including the 2019 Afcon finals in Egypt, because he had no Zimbabwean passport.
