'Not so much about injuries': Portsmouth boss explains why title-winning pair were axed from squad list

Instead the head coach insists the reason not to register the former Crewe man and Ben Stevenson was centred on having five other central midfielders ahead of them.

The transfer window arrivals of Freddie Potts and Abdoulaye Kamara sealed the Pompey fates of the title-winning pair, who found themselves surplus to requirements.

Joining Andre Dozzell, Marlon Pack and Owen Moxon, it created a congested area of Mousinho’s squad.

As a consequence, Lowery, whose time on the south coast has been dogged by lengthy injury spells, was left out of the Blues’ 25-man squad earlier this month.

While there were unsuccessful attempts to offload the 26-year-old along with Stevenson on deadline day.

Mousinho told The News: ‘We managed to bring in Freddie and Abdu late on in the window.

‘When we looked at that department, we had five players in that position with Andre, Marlon, Abdu, Freddie and Owen Moxon and thought it was going to be difficult for Tom to get games.

‘We wanted to see if we could get him games, he’s a player that deserves to play somewhere and is more than good enough to play at the level we operated last year - and unfortunately we couldn't make it happen.

‘It was not so much about his injury record. It’s always something we look at in terms of robustness, but Tom has done a lot of work to try to get himself fit.

‘He had that slight injury scare against Millwall, but it didn’t turn out to be anything too bad. He’s fit and firing and ready to go.’

Joining Lowery and Stevenson in not being named in the 25-man squad is Colby Bishop, who continues his recovery from heart surgery.

In the case of Stevenson, he has featured just five times in the league since arriving at Fratton Park in June 2023, with his only league start arriving against Port Vale last season.

Mousinho added: ‘Ben was very, very similar to Tom, we looked at the players in his position.

‘He couldn't really get a game last year through no fault of his own, even though I thought he was really good when he came in against Port Vale and in the cup games. He always trained really well and really contributed to the squad last season and to the success we had.

‘I know that sounds strange, having made just one league start, but those sorts of players keep the pressure on the other sixes, maintaining the training standards and professionalism around the place.

‘Ben can more than handle operating at League One level and do a job there. I suppose it's sometimes difficult for other clubs looking into it and seeing he hasn’t had the game time, but certainly from what I saw I know he’s definitely a capable player at that level.’