'I just want him back': Luckless Portsmouth favourite's 11-month injury hell - and why it keeps happening
The popular attacker has featured just 11 times in the last 11 months for the Blues
John Mousinho is ‘comfortable’ with how Pompey’s medical team handled Callum Lang’s latest aborted comeback.
And he is adamant there’s no-one to blame over the popular winger’s most recent devastating hamstring blow.
Lang has featured just 11 times since initially tearing his left hamstring in the second half of the February 2025 trip to Oxford United.
During the subsequent 11 months, he has returned to action on three separate occasions, only for each to result in a recurrence of the injury.
Missed 67 per cent of Portsmouth’s matches in last 11 months
Staggeringly, the 27-year-old has been unavailable for 67 per cent of Pompey’s matches since that Kassam Stadium blow, while in August he opted to undergo an operation in a bid to resolve the problem.
Now it’s the other hamstring which has collected injury - his right - having felt it following the Boxing Day encounter with QPR.
And with Lang having missed 26 of the Blues’ last 39 matches through hamstring issues, it’s a headache which continues to infuriate Mousinho.
He told The News: ‘Langy is okay, he is going to be 4-6 weeks from the time of injury, so we’re looking at at least three weeks into that.
‘It’s a different hamstring to the previous one. It doesn't make a difference to me, it’s still a hamstring, I just want him back.
‘It’s the way Callum plays, the intensity he plays at, he’s always going to be at risk. We did make a real conscious effort (to look after him), we always do with all the players who are coming back from rehabilitation, managing him back into it.
‘Maybe just with the load and the amount of games and the intensity of it, it was just one game too far.
‘From a football medical standpoint, we are comfortable with the fact we have done everything we possibly can with Callum and he has looked as strong as he can. Sometimes these things do happen.
‘There’s sometimes nothing you can do about injuries, hence sides have got them up and down the country.’
QPR set-back
Curiously it was after the final whistle of the Boxing Day draw with QPR that Lang realised there was a hamstring issue.
Indeed, the ex-Wigan man had completed the full 90 minutes without any apparent issue, with two substitutions still available for Mousinho in the 1-1 outcome.
However, it was afterwards discovered there was an issue with his right hamstring, with Lang subsequently missing the last three matches - and is expected to continue being sidelined for the remainder of January.
At the time, Lang had started five successive matches over a 28-day period, having initially been eased into the action by twice being named as a substitute.
11 appearances since February 2025
Since February 2025, he has played 11 times, was an unused substitute at Sheffield United and rested for the Carabao Cup against Reading.
During that period, Lang has also missed 26 matches through those ongoing hamstring injuries.
Mousinho added: ‘It was an interesting one with Callum, it wasn’t an acute injury.
‘He didn’t necessarily feel it in a moment in the QPR game because he didn’t come off. He played 90 minutes and, unfortunately, off the back of that, it wasn’t right.’
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