Portsmouth boss reveals huge Colby Bishop blow with striker expected to miss Championship start
The prolific striker has missed the Blues’ last two friendlies
John Mousinho has revealed Colby Bishop will miss Pompey’s start to the Championship season.
The popular striker was absent from today's 1-0 victory over PEC Zwolle, in addition to Wednesday's friendly against Brighton under-21s.
Instead he watched from the South Stand as his replacement Thomas Waddingham grabbed an 89th-minute winner from substitute Florian Bianchini’s cross.
Afterwards, Mousinho explained Bishop had collected a groin injury in training at the start of the week to sideline him.
According to the Blues’ head coach, the former Accrington man could be absent for up to three weeks, ruling him out of contention for the Championship opener at Oxford United on August 9.
Mousinho told The News: ‘Unfortunately Colby has picked up a bit of a groin injury, it is going to keep him out for 2-3 weeks.
‘We are hoping to get him back quickly, hopefully it doesn’t drag on any longer than that, but that’s one which is unfortunately going to keep him out.
‘It has happened in training and, in terms of that fatigue we’ve had through pre-season, it’s one of those things.
‘We have tried to keep ourselves as injury-free as possible, but unfortunately we’ve picked up one.’
Pompey’s only other injury absentee against Zwolle was Tom McIntyre, who returned to training this week following an issue.
Bishop’s last outing saw him net twice in last weekend’s 4-0 win at Reading, before taken off in the 59th minute amid a glut of Blues substitutions.
Focus will now turn to Waddingham to continue in place of Bishop, following another goal during an encouraging pre-season for Australia.
His Zwolle strike represented a fourth in pre-season, having netted against Farnborough and twice against Brighton Under-21s.
Pompey are already light in the centre-forward area, with Mark O’Mahony, Kusini Yengi and Christian Saydee all leaving in the summer.
While O’Mahony returned to parent club Brighton and subsequently loaned to Reading, Yengi was released and later joined Aberdeen, while Saydee was sold to Wigan.