Charlton manager Karl Robinson has played down a move for free agent Josh Wright.

Wright, 27, left Gillingham after mutually terminating his contract last week.

The midfielder is a former Charlton trainee, and made three appearances for the club before leaving to find more first-team opportunities.

He has proven himself in League One with Gillingham and Scunthorpe in recent years, and played for Millwall in the Championship.

Despite letting veteran midfielder Andrew Crofts leave on deadline day, Robinson says Charlton won’t try to sign Wright, who is in talks with Saturday’s opponents Southend.

The Liverpudlian told News Shopper: “You look at our team at the moment in the area he plays, we’ve got Ahmed Kashi, Jake Forster-Caskey, Joe Aribo and Ezri Konsa who can play there.

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“So if I brought in another [midfielder], that would be five players in one position. If we only had three midfielders, Josh Wright would be a player we’d look at 100 per cent.

“But I can’t carry five central midfield players. I can’t keep them all happy - I’d have three that are unhappy rather than two. My job is to make sure that as many players here are happy and content and see that they have an opportunity to play if we have an injury.

“The biggest difficulty at football clubs is when you have too many football players and there are four or five who don't see any opportunity of playing.

“So sometimes by loading your squad, the players feel so far away that it becomes a disruptive nature in the dressing room - that’s not something I want.

“We already have four central midfield players. But I’ve never said I don't like Josh Wright, I think he’s a top player and if circumstances were different, he would certainly be someone who we’d look at.”