Pompey have 18 available outfield players for Tuesday night’s trip to Wolves

John Mousinho is adamant he will never promote young Pompey talent ‘for the sake of it’.

But with just 18 outfield players available for Tuesday night’s trip to Wolves, the Blues’ head coach admits he may be forced to change his stance.

John Mousinho is without 12 players for the trip to Wolves on Tuesday night. Picture: Jason Brown

placeholder image — John Mousinho is without 12 players for the trip to Wolves on Tuesday night. Picture: Jason Brown

With Colby Bishop collecting a knee injury during the warm-up for Saturday’s 1-0 at Norwich, Pompey dwindling squad numbers have been further devastated.

Mousinho has named two goalkeepers - Daniel Bielica and Ben Killip - among his substitutes in the last two matches, while he may not even be able to fill the bench at Molineux.

Bishop has now joined Conor Shaughnessy, Josh Murphy, Benjy Arthur, Thomas Waddingham, Franco Umeh, Keshi Anderson, John Swift, Connor Ogilvie, Tayo Singerr, Mark Kosznovszky and Luke Brooke-Smith on the sidelines.

The head coach had previously decided against recalling Chinedu Agu (Basingstoke), Michael Ani (the Hawks) and Nathaniel Chioma (Poole) from loans, while promising second-year scholar Ashton Sizer is another option.

Yet with 12 players missing through injury, Mousinho may well have to include some of them for the visit to eighth-placed Wolves.

‘What we don’t want to do is just fill the bench for the sake of it’

He told The News: ‘We will have to reassess the substitute situation. We are hoping to have bodies back for Millwall and we have the three young lads out on loan, so we’ll see what that looks like.

‘What we don’t want to do is just fill the bench for the sake of it if we’re not going to bring players on. So we’ll adjust and see what that looks like.

Colby Bishop on the Carrow Road pitch before he sustained an injury in the pre-match warm-up. Picture: Jason Brown | Jason Brown

‘My take on the Sheffield United game was if you put an Academy player on the bench for the experience, that’s fine. Then I asked myself the question: would I bring that player on? The answer was no.

‘Would I bring Ben (Killip) on if we needed him? There is an unbelievably small chance of needing to make two goalkeeping substitutions, but why waste a spot? If the worst thing that could happen is you’ve got an issue with two keepers, then you’ve got a replacement there.

‘The thought process is we’ve let them out on loan to various non-league clubs, that step up, though, is so, so big. Bringing in a kid is great for experience, but stick him on the pitch and it could kill his career off before it even starts.

‘We’ve got a couple of good ones. Ashton (Sizer) has gone away with Wales under-19s and done very well.

‘If you ask whether he is ready for a taste of Championship football, I honestly don’t think so - and I want to protect him just as much as I want to protect the team.’

Three on loan in Southern League Premier South

First-year professional trio Chioma, Agu and Ani are all on loan to Southern League Premier South clubs, competing five divisions below the Championship.

While Sizer was part of the Blues’ Under-18s side which lost 2-1 at home to Wycombe on Saturday, ending an eight-match unbeaten run.

Pompey are still assessing the full extent of Bishop’s knee injury, although he is not expected to be involved at Wolves - potentially opening the door for at least one younger to be included.

Mousinho added: ‘The only thing with Colby is there's absolutely no chance he pulls himself out of contention if it’s not something which properly keeps him out. He’s tough, he’s played through a huge amount of my time here.

‘That affected what we had to do in the game against Norwich. He would have definitely come on and we could have made a couple of different substitutions.’

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