Nat Chioma is heading back to Fratton Park from his loan spell at Poole Town

Pompey youngster Nat Chioma is returning early from his loan spell at non-league Poole Town.

The defender moved to the Southern League Premier South side on September 26, signing a one-month deal at the Clear Group Stadium.

Chioma featured five times for Poole, who enjoy a four-point lead at the top of the table.

He netted a spectacular goal in The Dolphins’ 3-1 win at Chertsey Town in what has proven to be a successful loan for the first-year professional.

However, it’s now been confirmed the left-back will head back to Fratton Park a week earlier than expected.

A statement posted by Poole Town on X on Monday night read: ‘We can confirm that Nat Chioma’s loan spell has concluded.

‘We would like to thank Nat for his time and efforts whilst wearing a Poole Town shirt, and his goal against Chertsey will stay long in the memory.

‘Best of luck for the future, Nat.’

Chioma’s return to Fratton Park comes amid an injury crisis at Pompey.

John Mousinho’s Blues head to Wolves in the Championship on Tuesday night with 11 first-team members set to miss the Blues’ first trip to Molineux since 2009.

On Saturday. Colby Bishop joined an injured list that already contained Conor Shaughnessy, Josh Murphy, Benjy Arthur, Thomas Waddingham, Franco Umeh, Keshi Anderson, John Swift, Connor Ogilvie, Mark Kosznovszky and Luke Brooke-Smith when he suffered a knee injury in the pre-match warm-up at Norwich.

The Blues have named two substitute goalkeepers on their bench for each of their past two games, against the Canaries and Sheffield United respectively.

Mousinho told The News at the weekend he would never promote young Pompey talent ‘for the sake of it’.

But with just 18 outfield players available for the Wolves game, the Blues head coach admitted he might be forced to change his stance.

‘We will have to reassess the substitute situation. We are hoping to have bodies back for Millwall and we have the three young lads out on loan, so we’ll see what that looks like,’ said Mousinho.

‘What we don’t want to do is just fill the bench for the sake of it if we’re not going to bring players on. So we’ll adjust and see what that looks like.

‘My take on the Sheffield United game was if you put an Academy player on the bench for the experience, that’s fine. Then I asked myself the question: would I bring that player on? The answer was no.

‘Would I bring Ben (Killip) on if we needed him? There is an unbelievably small chance of needing to make two goalkeeping substitutions, but why waste a spot? If the worst thing that could happen is you’ve got an issue with two keepers, then you’ve got a replacement there.

‘The thought process is we’ve let them out on loan to various non-league clubs, that step up, though, is so, so big. Bringing in a kid is great for experience, but stick him on the pitch and it could kill his career off before it even starts.

‘We’ve got a couple of good ones. Ashton (Sizer) has gone away with Wales under-19s and done very well.

‘If you ask whether he is ready for a taste of Championship football, I honestly don’t think so - and I want to protect him just as much as I want to protect the team.’

Up until today, Pompey had three of their academy youngsters out on loan, including Chinedu Agu (Basingstoke) and Michael Ani (the Hawks).

Josh Knight (Reading), Hayden Matthews (Bradford) and Jordan Williams (Blackpool) are among eight senior players currently playing their trades away from PO4 on a temporary basis.

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