Portsmouth hit by fresh injury set-back - as John Mousinho turns to former Havant & Waterlooville loanee
The former St Johnstone striker has made 13 appearances for the Blues, scoring once
Makenzie Kirk has become Pompey’s latest casualty after injury ruled him out of their impressive Millwall victory.
Although the striker’s absence surprisingly opened the door for Reuben Swann to be included in his first Blues squad since signing almost 20 months ago.
Pompey were boosted for Saturday’s trip to The Den by Harvey Blair returning after missing six games through the hip flexor problem he suffered against Arsenal last month.
On the other hand, he was replaced in the treatment room by Kirk, who, according to John Mousinho, felt his Achilles in training last week.
As a consequence, Swann returned his Hawks loan to be named on the bench in the 3-1 triumph over Alex Neil’s side just 24 hours later.
Not that he was needed, as second-half goals from Gustavo Caballero, John Swift and Marlon Pack earned the visitors successive Championship victories.
‘It’s nothing too serious’
Mousinho told The News: ‘In terms of fit pros we’ve got at the moment, the decision we made to recall Reuben from his loan at Havant and have him in the squad. It’s the fact that we felt we needed players.
‘Makenzie felt his Achilles in training on Wednesday. It’s nothing too serious, but he just wasn’t right for Saturday.
‘Good for Reuben, though. I suppose it’s a good sign we wanted to bring him back into the building, he had been doing well on loan at Havant, they wanted to keep him on.
‘We need to be selfish with that because it’s going to help us develop him by training with us every day - and hopefully at some point come onto the football pitch.’
From South League Premier South to the Championship
Swann’s last Hawks outing was an appearance off the bench in the 87th minute of last weekend’s 1-0 win at Weymouth in the Southern League Premier South.
Earlier this month, he was named man of the match in a goalless draw against Basingstoke Town, having been introduced at half-time.
Swann had joined the Hawks for a third spell on an initial month’s loan in mid-December, along with Harry Clout, now both have returned to Fratton Park.
Although Clout never managed an appearance for Aaron Martin’s side, having also struggled for outings in loan spells at Farnborough and Welling this season.
Swann, who joined for an undisclosed fee from AFC Sudbury in June 2024, is out of contract at the season’s end, although Pompey hold a club option.
Now aged 20, he has suffered an injury-hit time on the south-coast, including being restricted to just one pre-season friendly last summer.
With Andre Dozzell now ruled out for four weeks through an ankle injury, the Blues are also without Conor Chaplin, Aji Alese, Keshi Anderson, Conor Shaughnessy, Mark Kosznovszky, Hayden Matthews, Franco Umeh, Josh Murphy, Florian Bianchini, Thomas Waddingham and Josh Knight.