View: Portsmouth handed boost as John Mousinho shares Colby Bishop update
Portsmouth fans will be desperate to get Colby Bishop back out on the pitch at Fratton Park.
It hasn’t been the easiest of starts to life back in the EFL Championship for Pompey.
They have lost five and drawn four of their first nine matches back in England’s second tier, meaning they are without a competitive win in almost six months.
However, they did recently earn a point after an encouraging 1-1 draw with Oxford United at Fratton Park (5 October), a match they might have won had it not been for one player’s costly mistake.
Therefore, John Mousinho will be hoping that his side are on the right path and getting closer to their first win ahead of a trip to Loftus Road to take on QPR on Saturday (19 October).
While the step up in competition has certainly contributed to Portsmouth’s struggles this season, the absence of Bishop definitely hasn’t helped.
Portsmouth’s top scorer is yet to play this season after undergoing successful heart surgery in August.
A timescale has yet to be put on his return due to the severity and complexity of the issue. However, Mousinho did provide an update recently.
The Portsmouth boss said, as per The News (14 October), “Colby’s okay, he’s been out on the grass.
“He quite possibly could be (fit before January) but we don’t know for sure. It’s such an unknown, so there’s no exact timescale.
“If he’s ready we’ll get him involved in training and make sure he’s sharp and ready to go straightaway. There could be a couple of behind-closed-doors games, but putting any pressure on him isn’t the right thing to do.”
Colby Bishop close to a return at Portsmouth?
Bishop would be a huge addition to the Portsmouth team. The 27-year-old scored 21 times in League One last season, firing Mousinho’s side to the title and promotion.
According to FotMob, Bishop ranked in the 96th percentile of his positional peers in League One for his expected goals tally (0.59 per 90), as well as the 88th percentile for the number of shots he had on target (1.34 per 90).
Meanwhile, his 21 goals for the league season put him in the 98th percentile, with only Alfie May of Charlton Athletic scoring more goals (23) than Bishop in the entire division during the 2023/24 season.
It wasn’t just his goal threat either. The Englishman ranked in the top seven per cent for the number of successful passes he played (16.74 per 90), providing three assists overall across the league season.
He was also a useful target man, winning 44 per cent of his aerial duels per 90, which left him in the top 82nd percentile for this particular statistic, while he also won 43.3 per cent of his overall duels per 90, once again leaving him in the top 18 per cent.
Should Bishop return to the fold, Portsmouth could certainly expect to start winning more matches.
Therefore, Mousinho will be desperate to get him back, while of course remembering the importance of not rushing the striker into anything at the same time.
In other Portsmouth news, Ian Darke believes one player at the club is not in the right head space after a recent decision.
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