Striker Rey Manaj has had his contract with Watford cancelled by mutual consent, while on-loan defender Kortney Hause has not been included in the club’s new 24-man squad list.

Hause has been sidelined for months due to injury and with no break clause in his loan arrangement with Aston Villa, the Hornets are unable to terminate his loan.

Defender Wesley Hoedt, who made his Watford debut for the Under-21s yesterday, has been given squad number 44.

Each EFL club may register up to 25 first-team players over the age of 21. All Under-21 players, other than those who are on loan, do not need to be named in the squad list to be eligible to participate in a league match. For this season, these are players who were born on or after January 1, 2001.

Manaj joined the Hornets in the summer from Barcelona, but a combination of two hamstring injuries and some indifferent performances meant his time on the was extremely limited.

The 29-year-old started just two league games but did not play the full 90 minutes in either – the only occasion he completed an entire game was the home defeat to MK Dons in the Carabao Cup.

The Albanian international made a further four appearances as substitute and one of them – the away game at Birmingham in August – saw him net his only goal for the club.

Manaj sustained his first hamstring injury half an hour into the home defeat at the hands of QPR on August 27.

He didn’t feature again until the first game back after the World Cup break, when Watford drew 0-0 with Hull.

The striker replaced Joseph Hungbo in the 71st minute, missed a gilt-edged chance to score, and then picked up another hamstring injury and limped off in the 89th minute.

That turned out to be Manaj’s last outing in Watford colours, and he now leaves the club after just six months.

Watford’s new squad list:

1 Daniel Bachmann

2 Jeremy Ngakia

3 Mario Gaspar

4 Hamza Choudhury

6 Imrân Louza

7 Keinan Davis

8 Tom Cleverley

12 Ken Sema

14 Hassane Kamara

15 Craig Cathcart

21 Henrique Araújo

22 Ryan Porteous

23 Ismaïla Sarr

24 Tom Dele-Bashiru

25 Leandro Bacuna

26 Ben Hamer

27 Christian Kabasele

28 Samuel Kalu

31 Francisco Sierralta

34 Britt Assombalonga

35 Maduka Okoye

37 Matheus Martins

39 Edo Kayembe

44 Wesley Hoedt

Under-21 players

10 João Pedro

11 Ismaël Koné

13 João Ferreira

18 Yáser Asprilla

42 James Morris

49 Michael Adu-Poku

50 Adrian Blake

53 Jack Grieves

54 Tobi Adeyemo

57 Ryan Andrews

Note: All other Under-21 players are also eligible to be included.

Some news of other professionals on Watford’s books: Jorge Segura’s contract has been terminated, while Jaime Alvarado has joined Independiente Medellín on a permanent deal and Ober Almanza has completed a loan move to Deportivo Pereira until December 31, 2023.

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