'Given what's happened in the past' - The 'concern' that will be hampering Portsmouth's pre-season plans ahead of West Ham opener
Ten members of Pompey’s first-team set-up are yet to feature for the Blues in pre-season due to injury
Pompey’s current injury list just three weeks out from the start of the season will be a concern for John Mousinho.
That’s the verdict of The News’ Jordan Cross who believes the Blues’ present walking wounded number will be higher than they would have hoped for with the 2025-26 season just around the corner.
With two pre-season friendlies already in the can, 10 players are yet to feature for the Blues - Ebou Adams, Josh Murphy, Terry Devlin, Connor Ogilvie, Zak Swanson, Keshi Anderson, Josef Bursik, Franco Umeh, Mark Kosznovszky and Jacob Farrell.
Meanwhile, four players sat out one of the Woking or Aldershot fixtures as Pompey continue to manage their returns to action, namely Conor Shaughnessy, Harvey Blair, Thomas Wadingham and Marlon Pack.
In the case of Pack, it’s since emerged that he’s required knee surgey, a procedure he underwent on Thursday which rules him out for the start of the season.
Ogilvie, Bursik and Kosznovszky also fall into that category, while the fact Anderson requires a scan on a quad problem means he too is at risk of being stuck on the sidelines when the new season commences against West Ham in the Carabao Cup on Saturday, August 8.
In fairness, there’s more positive news regarding Adams, Murphy, Swanson and Devlin, with all four expected to step up their pre-season availability in the coming days. Indeed, there’s a chance Devlin could feature against Bristol Rovers at the Memorial Stadium today following a hamstring injury that ruled him out for the Blues’ final three games of last season.
The arrivals of Rocco Shein, Odin Bailey and Eoin Kenny will also ease the burden on the rest of the squad as they get to work on being fully fit for Pompey’s latest Championship campaign
But with the Fratton Park outfit’s injury woes well documented over the past two Championship seasons, Cross believes it’s only natural to have misgivings about current participation levels.
‘It needs to be sorted’
Speaking in the latest episode of Pompey Talk, Cross said the extent of work the players will be undertaking in pre-season will naturally contribute to any niggles.
Yet he still thinks Pompey are treading carefully far too early with injuries.
‘Given what's happened in the past, it’s quite right there’s some concern about volumes of injuries,’ he said.
‘You do get this happening pre-season. I was out at Fota Island last week and they (Pompey) had worked the players hard for a couple of days.
‘By the Wednesday, there were almost splinter groups of players. There was a group that included Waddingham, Blair, Umeh and a couple of others. You could see they were doing less, and you could see the reason they were doing less was because of their history of problems.
‘They were clearly in what some would call the red zone in terms of danger of muscular injuries.’
He continued: ‘The one that would concern me at the moment, without having any official update, would be Kessie Anderson.
‘Him picking up an injury and needing a scan given his injury history, that's a concern for me.
‘Marlon... I spoke to him last week and he was managing the problem and I think he could have probably got on with it.
‘I think Marlon would have got on with it, again, if the concern was that it would have left them light going into the season.
‘Yeah, of course, given Pompey's problems, injuries now would be a concern. It needs to be sorted.
‘That said, this time of year, I've seen the levels of which they work at.’
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