Portsmouth boss’ key triple defensive injury update after Zak Swanson forced off at Swansea City

But Pompey face a nervy wait to see the extent of Regan Poole’s ankle issue, as he lost his ever-present league status last night.

Poole missed out in south Wales, after injuring his ankle in training - an issue which kept him out of Saturday’s abandoned clash against Charlton Athletic.

The Wales international didn’t make it back for the 1-0 loss at the Swansea.com Stadium, as the Blues fell three points from safety on a bleak night.

It was a similar story for Josh Knight, who is struggling with a back problem which also kept him out of the game. Knight’s issue isn’t deemed as serious as Poole’s, however, with Pompey monitoring the injury ahead of Saturday’s clash with Blackburn Rovers.

Swanson was forced off five minutes after the restart, after going to ground with a back issue - though Mousinho alleviated concerns the problem is serious.

He said: ‘Swanny just felt his back so we will just see how he is. I don’t think that it’s any major concern, I don’t think he’s going to be too bad.

‘Josh is going to day to day at the moment, so we will see how he is for the weekend.

‘With Regan we are still waiting on scan results, we should hear back about that later this week.’

In the absence of Poole and Knight, Mousinho turned to Ibane Bowat and Hayden Matthews in the middle of his defence in what was a makeshift Pompey back four.

Terry Devlin was deployed at right-back and put in one of his side’s more positive displays, with Swanson moving to left-back and looking confident before his withdrawal.

Mousinho added: ‘I actually thought the back four were pretty good.

‘I guess when you lose the two who have been front-liners in Regan and Josh and bring in Ibs and Hayden together for their first start of the season, I actually thought they fared really well.

‘They are two young lads who dealt with Idah and then Vipotnik for large parts of the game.

‘It’s always difficult when you’re playing certain players out of position as we are, with a right-back at left-back. Terry is doing a pretty good job at right-back but isn’t necessarily a right-back. He’s doing a good job there.’

Meanwhile, Mousinho aired frustration that Swansea weren’t reduced to 10 men, with Callum Lang hauled down by Ben Cabango in the 13th minute as he ran through on goal.

Referee Tom Reeves elected to give a yellow and not red card, which was a cause of frustration to Mousinho - though he underlined his own team’s shortcomings were key to the defeat.

He added: ‘I thought we looked pretty good in possession and one time we got in going long, Langy got dragged down - I thought that was a red card.

‘He was through and I spoke to the referee and he said there was no covering defender, but he wasn’t convinced the ball was under control. It wasn’t under control, because it’s hard to control the ball when you’ve been dragged down by a centre-half.

‘I’m not sure what he wanted Langy to do and that’s a moment which could’ve changed things, but I still think we could’ve done a lot of things better.’