Fresh Conor Shaughnessy blow for Portsmouth as John Mousinho admits frustration
Pompey are reeling after receiving yet another Conor Shaughnessy blow.
The influential central defender has featured just twice in their Championship return - and is now ruled out for another 4-6 weeks.
A specialist has pinpointed tendon damage in his troublesome calf, having broken down while warming up during his scheduled comeback against Sheffield United last month.
The diagnosis is far worse than anticipated by the Blues’ management, leaving them potentially without Shaughnessy until December as his injury nightmare continues.
Mousinho told The News: ‘With Conor there is a bit of tendon damage in the calf and that’s going to keep him out for about 4-6 weeks.
‘It looks like it’s the same area, but certainly not the original injury we were treating. We weren’t treating a tendon injury to start off with, so it’s hard to tell whether there was something underlying or something he picked up.
‘Either way we have to deal with what we have. We have to make sure we get it right and he’s back and available and fit.
‘He will now rehab, he’s with the medical staff and making sure he does everything properly to get himself back.
‘It’s really frustrating for us and for Conor. You can probably tell by the fact that when we had him back in training for a week we wanted to get him back in the side.
‘He’s such a big important part of what we’ve done here over the past year and what we want to continue to do. He’s a big miss for us.’
While Shaughnessy’s absence continues, Kusini Yengi and Callum Lang are now back in training following injury.
That leaves Bishop, Shaughnessy, Jacob Farrell and Ibane Bowat unavailable, while the Blues are waiting for Mark O’Mahony, Sammy Silvera and Terry Devlin to return from international duty.
He added: ‘We’ve got a few players back.
‘We are always going to pick up a few injuries here and there. There are always going to be some that frustrate us and always some we can make sense of, that’s absolutely fine.
‘I look at our injury situation now and compared to where we were at the start of the season we are in a much better position.’