Sammy Donnelly fears for the future of representative football.

The Sussex boss leads his side into Southern Counties Cup Competition action away to the Royal Navy in Portsmouth tonight.

His squad was ripped apart by eight withdrawals from the 16-man party on Monday and Donnelly says something has to be done.

He said: “I am concerned that we are devaluing what it really means to represent your county.

“It should be an honour to play for your county and it is definitely an honour for me to be manager of Sussex.

“I know it is a difficult one between managers, clubs and players but we need to get back on an even keel and maybe that means playing in a competition that plays on Saturdays like we used to.

“It has come to my notice that we can now pick Ryman League players up to division one level but once again we come up against fixtures. If you look at this week all four Sussex Ryman division one sides have midweek games.

“I think we should definitely have a representative side but we need to look at which competition we enter.

“The situation seems to be getting worse not better yet expectations from certain people are still high.”

Joe Gatting (Whitehawk), Matt Geard (Horsham YMCA), Mike Huckett, Gary Norgate (both Arundel), Scott Murfin (Wick), Tony Reid (Redhill). Reece Head (Eastbourne United) and Mark Reeve (Hailsham) are the players to pull out of the original squad.