'It is a concern': Yet another Portsmouth injury as luckless attacker suffers fresh set-back in Darmstadt
The 22-year-old has totalled 28 appearances since joining in August 2024 from Liverpool
John Mousinho has spoken of his ‘concern’ after yet another winger injury blow - this time in Darmstadt.
While Josh Murphy has suffered a ‘minor set-back’ and didn’t travel, now Harvey Blair is the latest casualty having once again broken down in what have been an injury-ravaged two years at Fratton Park.
According to John Mousinho, the former Liverpool man felt his hip during the warm-up ahead of kick-off against the Bundesliga 2 side on Saturday.
As a consequence, he was among two outfield players not used from the bench in the goalless draw which marked the Blues’ final pre-season friendly.
It meant Luke Brooke-Smith was handed a first Pompey appearance on the left wing, while Adrian Segecic played the entire match on the right.
‘Am I concerned? Yes’
Mousinho told The News: ‘Harvey felt his hip in the warm-up, so he wasn’t available.
‘It’s where we are at the moment, I don’t think we necessarily have the luxury of letting too many players out until we have those incomings, so we have to make sure we have enough players to go to West Ham.
‘With Harvey, I haven’t properly caught up with Steve Hard (head physio) yet, so I need to catch up with him. I think Harvey was hesitant about coming on.
‘Am I concerned? Yes. Where we are with wingers at the minute, that’s a difficult one for us because we have Keshi and Murph out, Franco and Harvey out. So Luke got his debut, we moved Segs out to the right, which is the first time we’ve done that this summer.
‘I know Segs can play out there. Whether that’s where we see his position long-term or not, I don’t know, we’ll have to have a look at that.
‘That is where we are at the moment, we played Eoin (Kenny) on the left in the second half, I know Segs ended up getting 90 minutes, which was great. It is a concern.’
28 appearances in two years for Pompey
Blair was expected to make his fourth pre-season outing on Saturday - instead he is now regarded as a potential doubt for next weekend’s Carabao Cup clash at West Ham.
The 22-year-old has totalled just 28 appearances since joining in August 2024 from Liverpool, with a succession of different injury problems.
As for Murphy, last weekend he was pencilled in for a first-team return at the Hammers - now he is likely to miss the opening two matches of the season.
‘It’s nothing major, but it’s just those minor ones’
Mousinho added: ‘With Josh, we are probably looking at him being back for Lincoln or Bristol City.
‘There are a few bits niggling along with him and we can't quite seem to get him over the line. We are very, very close with that, it has seemed like that for a long, long time. Unfortunately we are just not quite there with him.
‘You could probably call them set-backs, it’s nothing major, but it’s just those minor ones. It’s that last little hurdle we are trying to get him over.’