Portsmouth remain in dark over Conor Shaughnessy injury as Josh Murphy rated 50-50 for Ipswich game
Pompey boss John Mousinho has been providing an update on the injuries to some of his key players ahead of Saturday’s trip to Ipswich Town
Pompey will wait to see a specialist before knowing the full extent of the hamstring injury Conor Shaughnessy picked up in Saturday’s 2-0 home defeat to Sheffield Wednesday.
Until then, the defender is being considered a ‘short to medium-term’ injury absentee by head coach John Mousinho - a prognosis which will rule the 29-year-old out for the immediate future, including this weekend’s trip to Ipswich Town.
There’s also an element of doubt surrounding Josh Murphy’s immediate availability.
The winger sat out the Owls defeat with an ankle problem that limited his movement and caused him pain in the goalless draw at Southampton.
In his last update at the weekend, Mousinho said he was hopeful the former Cardiff and Norwich forward would return to the first-team fold for the game at Portman Road.
But with that fixture just three days away, Murphy’s availability is no better than 50-50. A decision on him will be taken on Friday, before the Blues set off for Portman Road.
On a positive note, Spurs loanee Minyeok Yang - who also sat out the visit of Wednesday to Fratton Park with an ankle injury - has returned to full training and is in contention to feature against the Tractor Boys.
John Mousinho provides update on Conor Shaughnessy
Shaughnessy, who featured just nine times for Pompey last season due to a series of calf issues before Christmas and then a hamstring injury shortly into the new year, pulled up in the 50th minute of Saturday’s defeat against Sheffield Wednesday.
In doing so, it presented Owls striker George Brown with the opportunity to net the visitors’ second goal of the game - a blow the hosts could not recover from.
The centre-back was immediately withdrawn and replaced by Hayden Matthews.
He’s since had a scan on the injury. However, Pompey are seeking advice from a specialist before determining how long the League One title winner will be out for.
‘Yeah, we don't know the extent of that yet,’ admitted Mousinho in his latest press conference.
‘We're waiting to see a specialist off the back of Shocks (Shaughnessy) having a scan. It's not going to be a short-term fix, so yeah, we're just waiting to see sort of how severe it is and see how long Shocks will be out for off the back of that. So yeah, we're all waiting for that.’
Mousinho on Murphy
Murphy was a surprise omission from the side on Saturday, with Mousinho forced to play Swansea loanee Florian Bianchini on the left wing in his absence.
The Blues missed their 2024-25 player of the season as they struggled to create anything of note against the Owls. Now the wait is on to see if he’ll be fit to travel to Suffolk at the weekend.
Mousinho said: ‘Yeah Murph’s okay. We’ll look for Murph to train on Friday and then make a decision on him off the back of the session on Friday.’
Minyeok Yang update
The Spurs loanee hasn’t featured for the Blues since starting against Reading in the Carabao Cup.
He’s currently behind the likes of Adrian Segecic, Conor Chaplin and Bianchini in the Pompey attacking pecking order. But with Murphy, Franco Umeh, Callum Lang and Harvey Blair also unavailable to face the Owls, the Blues had limited forward options to turn from off the bench.
That should change, though, for this weekend’s trip to Ipswich.
‘Minyeok’s back in full training, so he’ll be available for the weekend,’ said Mousinho.