Quique Sanchez Flores has again cast doubt over Matej Vydra’s future at Watford by not confirming whether the striker will be in the Hornets’ 25-man Premier League squad.

The Czech Republic international returned to the match-day 18 for today’s 2-0 defeat at Manchester City but was an unused substitute as Watford were unable to score for a fourth consecutive match in all competitions.

The Hornets must submit a 25-man squad after the transfer window closes on Tuesday and asked whether Vydra would make the cut, Flores replied: “It’s possible, I don’t know. We are moving every day. We try to know what is the best squad possible we can offer the Watford fans and the best squad that can compete for the rest of the season. At the moment he is here because he is in thoughts but we have four days more to resolve.”

Asked previously whether it should be ‘assumed’ Vydra will be among the squad because he was on the bench, Flores side-stepped the question, instead choosing to explain why Ikechi Anya and Miguel Layun had been introduced for the second half because the head coach “tried to change players in the positions I think we need energy”.

Vydra has been one of the high-profile Watford players linked with a move away from Vicarage Road in the past week and more departures are expected after Daniel Pudil and Fernando Forestieri both completed moves to Sheffield Wednesday.

Reiterating what he’d said about the current squad size pre-match, Flores said: “It’s not easy to work like this, working with 30 players on the training ground is difficult for me...to keep the high mentality in the team. So now we want to solve the situation, other players want to move to other teams and I’m happy because they have the opportunity to play in other competitions.”