John Mousinho's striker warning as Portsmouth turn to ex-Newcastle man to fill gulf

Their 21-goal leading scorer in the League One title-winning season is absent for an unspecified period as he undergoes heart surgery.

That prompted the Blues to recruit a striking alternative, with Sorensen arriving from Esbjerg on a three-year deal.

The 24-year-old has been prolific since leaving Newcastle in 2022, with his game flourishing since returning to his native Denmark.

Now he’s back in England - although a very different player to the man he is challenged to replace.

Mousinho told The News: ‘Elias provides us with another option up front, where we probably weren’t looking to strengthen prior to the news about Colby Bishop.

‘It’s a very, very interesting time to bring Elias in and to give him a really good opportunity to come back to England having been over here once and, by his own admission, things not going brilliantly well.

‘He went back to Denmark and scored so many goals and had such an effect over there. So it’s a massive chance and a really exciting time for him to come back in.

‘Compared to Colby, Elias is probably a more on the shoulder centre-forward that looks to spin into channels. His goal-scoring record over the past couple of seasons has been very good.

‘He’s high energy, quick, really likes to get going with his running, but also no slouch with his back to goal, so I think we can expect a lot from Elias.’

Signing another striker wasn’t initially on the Blues agenda, with a pool of Bishop, Kusini Yengi and Christian Saydee to choose from.

Although, Rich Hughes and his recruitment team did have a contingency plan should injury strike - as has been proven.

Mousinho added: ‘I think if the opportunity had come up, we would certainly have looked long and hard at signing Elias to give us another option in the building, particularly with Christian maybe more of a number 10.

‘But the fact Colby is out made it an easy decision.

‘We thought we were going into the summer transfer window with a relatively strong forward line and were looking at what was underneath that, because you never know with injuries.

‘Colby’s news was very different to that, it’s not what we quite expected, but if we’d have picked up an injury we still needed to make sure we were ready to go and bring someone else in.’