PHIL PARKINSON has two free spaces in his squad but the Wrexham boss says players already at the club deserve the chance to show what they can do and he also wants to give Anthony Forde time to prove his fitness.

In line with Football League regulations, Parkinson has submitted his list of outfield players aged over 21 for the first half of the 2024-25 League One season.

Clubs in the third tier are limited to a 22-man squad, although that number does not include goalkeepers or players who were under the age of 21 - such as Sebastian Revan and Mo Faal - at the start of the calendar year.

Following all the ins and outs before the summer transfer window closed, the Reds' boss was left with 21 outfield players over the age of 21 but Forde, who missed the last three months of last season with a back injury, has not been included in the squad at this stage.

However, Parkinson, who is allowed to change his list when the January transfer window opens, says the wing-back remains in his thoughts.

"Fordy had a bad injury last year and he is now starting to feel back to what he was," he said.

"I said to him I didn't want to put him in the squad unless he was really right but he is getting there all the time.

"There is the option of putting Fordy in when he is needed or if something happened and we needed to strengthen, we can do that."

Although he is allowed to sign free-agents to complete his squad, Parkinson, who saw unbeaten Wrexham beat arch rivals Shrewsbury Town 3-0 in Saturday's cross-border derby at The Racecourse to go top of the table, says players at the club deserve their chance to impress.

Former Manchester City academy graduate Josh Adam has been on trial with Wrexham following his release and the Reds' boss hasn't ruled out signing the 20-year-old who wouldn't fill a space in the squad due to his age.

"At the moment we will roll with what we have got," he added.

"We have got some good players who haven't figured much yet so we don't want to bring someone in for the sake of it.

"We have had young Josh Adam in from Manchester City on trial. He is a player we would like to keep because he has got real talent but in terms of a senior player coming in at the moment, we have got enough of those fighting for places."

List of senior outfield players in Wrexham squad list submitted to EFL: Ryan Barnett, Luke Bolton; Will Boyle; Lewis Brunt; Andy Cannon; Max Cleworth; George Dobson; George Evans; Steven Fletcher; James Jones; Elliot Lee; Jack Marriott; James McClean; Jacob Mendy; Paul Mullin; Eoghan O’Connell; Tom O’Connor; Ollie Palmer; Ollie Rathbone; Dan Scarr.