Frustrated Michael Eisner targets making new appointment to finally end Portsmouth injury woes
The Blues are to seeking to create a head of performance role in a bid to put an end to awful injury record
Michael Eisner declared Pompey’s commitment to resolving their wretched injury record and insisted: It’s probably the single biggest area we are working on.
It has been a familiar tale of woe for John Mousinho this summer, with up to 11 players occupying the Blues’ congested treatment room during pre-season.
The likes of Marlon Pack and Connor Ogilvie were forced to undergo surgery after breaking down, while Keshi Anderson, Josh Murphy, Ogilvie, Josef Bursik and Tayo Singerr didn't feature in a single friendly.
According to Pompey’s chairman, the club are currently exploring creating a head of performance role, with a focus on maximising player fitness and availability.
The precise title has still to be decided, although it is understood the chosen candidate will work directly under sporting director Rich Hughes.
And Eisner is adamant Pompey are determined to get to the bottom of the squad’s long-standing injury problems.
‘It is an area we are putting a lot of focus on, such as performance and medical’
He told The News: ‘This is probably the single biggest area we are working on as relates to the players. It is an area we are putting a lot of focus on, such as performance and medical.
‘We are spending a lot of time all over the world, looking at best practices, medicine, identifying potential problems through motion photography and stuff like that. We want to use technology as best we can.
‘For sure injuries have been a problem. It’s not only a problem we have, it’s a problem all over the Championship, mostly because of non-impact injuries which are happening all over the league.
‘To the degree, we can’t help our players to not have that happen. For wingers, the forwards, that non-stop running is harder on the body - but we are spending a lot of investment in looking into that.
‘We are looking for a new head in that area, a head of performance, which would be another position built out. It’s steady progression, bringing in a head of performance and building on more departments and steady progression.
‘We didn’t have a sporting director before, we didn’t have a medical department, we still have a lean and mean group. But we are slowly putting experts in fields which we didn't even know existed.’
Pompey still have eight players injured
At times during pre-season, Mousinho has been without Zak Swanson, Ebou Adams, Mark Kosznovszky, Harvey Blair, Franco Umeh, Murphy, Pack, Ogilvie, Anderson, Bursik and Singerr.
Of those 11 players, only Swanson, Adams and Murphy were available for last weekend’s Championship opener against QPR, which finished in a 3-1 Fratton Park defeat.
In the case of Swanson and Adams, they returned late in pre-season, while Murphy marked his comeback with 25 minutes off the bench against Rangers on Saturday.
Eisner added: ‘Nothing is more frustrating than bringing in somebody new and then having them injured.
‘Obviously Josh Murphy is one of our best players and having him out for almost a season is frustrating. He is a great guy and it’s nobody’s fault. Well, the guy who stepped on his foot and broke it (against Swansea), that’s his fault!’