Portsmouth boss fires back at criticism over injuries after latest serious setback to £500,000 Fulham signing

And the Blues boss vowed he will not compromise on the first team’s training intensity, as fans ask questions over the volume of players sidelined at PO4.

Bowat has been dealt a massive blow, with news the £500,000 deadline day signing from Fulham has been ruled out for six months.

That’s after the 22-year-old suffered a serious knee injury at the club’s Hilsea training base, taking an unopposed shot in training.

Mousinho is clear that all the necessary due diligence was carried out on Bowat ahead of signing, with no issues highlighted when he undertook his medical.

The Pompey boss echoes fans’ frustrations on the latest issue, but is clear all the professional boxes were ticked ahead of the Londoner being signed.

Mousinho said: ‘With Ibane he had a full season last year playing out in Austria and a full season before that playing in the Netherlands.

‘He has hardly any injury history at all and things were fine on the medical.

‘He then came in and had that injury on Tuesday after a period of rest as well.

‘We look into all these things, I can assure the fans of that.

‘I know there’s a lot of frustration because they want to see these players, but it seems that we have this curse with injuries at the moment.

‘I really don’t know (why that’s the case), but we’re making sure with every injury we pick up we look at the collectives and do everything we can to make sure the player doesn’t get injured.’

Bowat’s setback is the latest in a long line of serious Pompey injuries, which makes for jaw-dropping reading.

Last season saw the Blues lose Regan Poole (knee), Tom McIntyre (broken ankle), Joe Morrell (knee) and Alex Robertson (hamstring) to season-ending injuries, with Terry Devlin (shoulder), Zak Swanson (groin) and Anthony Scully (knee and ankle) spending significant periods on the sidelines.

Colby Bishop will not feature over the first half of the Championship season, after undergoing heart surgery last month when pre-season screening highlighted a ‘potential risk’ to the 27-year-old.

Already this Pompey have also seen McIntyre (hamstring), Conor Shaughnessy (calf), Jacob Farrell (knee), Josh Murphy (ankle), Kusini Yengi (groin), Mark O’Mahony (ankle) and Reuben Swann (unspecified) sidelined.

Mousinho can understand fans looking for deeper reasons for a volume of injuries which is unprecedented at Fratton Park.

But the Pompey boss stated there is no root cause or pattern to follow, while the need to work with intensity has been evident at Championship level.

Nonetheless, Mousinho will look at what is taking place at the club’s Hilsea to see if there is any way of reducing players being sidelined.

He said: ‘There isn’t (a pattern). It’s a real big thing for us that we tend to look at soft tissue injuries in a bit more depth.

‘The contact injuries we can’t do anything about - and I’d much rather we train with intensity rather than not. That’s because we need it, you can see that you need that in Championship games.

‘You can’t just switch off in the week. Maybe the top lads can do that, but certainly where we are at the moment (they can’t).

‘I think we had a lot of success last year because of the way we played and the intensity of it.

‘If you look at how we played in the first half against West Brom, you can’t say “oh go on lads, we’re going to have a couple of light sessions this week, don’t tackle and press”.

‘It’s always a balance, a fine balance, and that’s ultimately what we have to get right. It’s something we have to think about. These are really good sides, with good athletes and we have to step up to the plate as well.’