John Mousinho makes stark injury admission after what’s happened at Portsmouth
Portsmouth have suffered horrendously with injuries over the course of their first season back in the Championship for 13 years.
John Mousinho refuses to be downbeat about the situation, citing the same for other competing clubs in the second tier, but could be without as many as four of his starting XI from the last outing against QPR when Portsmouth take on Luton Town on Saturday (1 March).
Rob Atkinson, Hayden Matthews, Zak Swanson and Isaac Hayden all emerged with issues of varying degrees following the third successive win last weekend, with a bulk of others either doubtful, not quite ready or out for the season.
Mousinho fears injuries will ‘only get worse’
Mousinho was reluctant to reveal any details about the predicament of his players ahead of Saturday’s visit to bottom side Luton, with Portsmouth prepared to keep everyone guessing for the benefit of the club’s preparations.
However, the head coach did, while speaking to BBC Radio Solent this week, admit he believes injuries for all teams will only become more regular.
Mousinho puts this down to the physical demand increasing on players, as well as heavy pitches caused by wet weather.
“We’ve watched Championship games [this week] and players were getting injured for various different reasons,” he explained.
“It’s one of those seasons where I think it’ll only get worse with the state of the weather and pitches, and the demand on players.
“It’s something we have to be wary of in the future.”
Portsmouth approached this season well armed, with the largest squad in the Championship – and with the Blues nursing more injuries than any of the remaining 23 clubs in the division, it has been an absolute blessing.
Portsmouth hoping to capitalise on eased March schedule
Portsmouth have learnt some hard lessons this season, but will hopefully strengthen more rapidly in the adversity they have had with injuries.
Callum Lang and Conor Shaughnessy are two massive blows, with Lang having eased into Championship football and Shaughnessy having impressed when finally back from a five-month absence, only to suffer a hamstring injury.
Players like Jordan Williams and more recently Freddie Potts have also been a miss, while Kusini Yengi has missed a large chunk.
Even going back to the start of the season, Colby Bishop’s heart surgery amazingly only kept him on the sidelines for 12 weeks and Josh Murphy – now unstoppable on the left flank – had a slow start due to injuries.
| Portsmouth squad internationals | National team |
| Kusini Yengi | Australia |
| Hayden Matthews | Australia |
| Isaac Hayden | Jamaica |
| Terry Devlin | Northern Ireland U21 |
| Mark O’Mahony | Republic of Ireland U21 |
| Kaide Gordon | England U20 |
| Thomas Waddingham | Australia U20 |
Jacob Farrell, signed in the summer having won the Australian A-League twice, has only managed one game since arriving; Ibane Bowat, signed for around £500,000 from Fulham, has not even debuted yet.
The rain has poured, but March presents just one midweek game in the 31-day month, alongside what will be a very welcome international break in which only a small handful of players will be absent from training and with their nations.