Portsmouth dealt significant injury blows ahead of Arsenal FA Cup clash
Pompey welcome Premier League leaders Arsenal to Fratton Park in the FA Cup on Sunday.
Mark Kosznovszky will miss the remainder of the season due to a knee injury sustained against Charlton Athletic.
The 23-year-old, who made a £1m move from MTK Budapest in the summer, has featured 16 times for the Blues this season in all competitions.
The head coach has also confirmed a significant blow to Hayden Matthews, who is now set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
The centre-back, who suffered an ankle problem against Bristol City on New Year’s Day, will be out for 8-10 weeks - but won’t require surgery.
John Mousinho provides extensive Pompey injury update ahead of Arsenal
Josh Murphy is expected to remain absent for another 3-4 weeks due to a hamstring issue, alongside forward Callum Lang.
Central defender Josh Knight will continue to be out of action due to a back problem. Mousinho has confirmed fresh scans have revealed a stress fracture in the 28-year-old’s back, which will keep him out for at least 4-6 weeks.
Meanwhile, Connor Ogilvie has been pencilled in for a return against Watford on January 20th, while the head coach is hopeful Marlon Pack and Colby Bishop will be fit to face Arsenal this weekend.
Ahead of Sunday’s FA Cup tie against the Premier League leaders, the Blues boss provided an extensive injury update to The News as fitness issues hamper his squad.
Mark Kosznovszky
‘He’s devastated at the news. He’s torn his ACL and his MCL, he’s going to have surgery and is going to be out for anywhere between 9-12 months.
‘It’s one of those that will be a bitter blow for him because of how well he’s done recently coming into the side and having such a good effect.
‘Mark’s a very strong, young lad and he’ll be absolutely fine.’
Josh Knight
‘So Josh (Knight) had essentially bone bruising on the back, we were resting that just to see how it settled down.
‘In the last week now that has gone, we’ve had him rescanned and underneath that there’s a stress fracture there.
‘That’s something we couldn’t initially see on the scan but now it’s really clear to us.
‘Unfortunately that’s one of those injuries that means he’s going to be off his feet for the next 4-6 weeks and is going to build off the back of that.
‘We actually thought at the time that because the symptoms were presenting a stiff and sore back, we couldn’t actually see that he had that stress fracture there.
‘Now things have settled down, we’ve seen how serious it is fair play to Josh for trying to play through that. And we’ll just need a bit of time on the sidelines for that.’
Hayden Matthews
‘Hayden’s going to be about 8-10 weeks with a very similar injury to what he picked up last year, but it doesn’t require surgery.
‘He injured his ankle in the tackle on the far side at the back end of Bristol City.’
Connor Ogilvie
‘Connor’s back in training, he won’t be available for the weekend but he should be for the Watford game.
Marlon Pack and Colby Bishop
‘We’ll have Marlon back in the fold and hopefully Colby back in the fold and a couple of the players that we thought might be struggling with illness back.’