Portsmouth boss eyes Ebou Adams injury return amid Zak Swanson update

John Mousinho has confirmed the high-stakes relegation showdown with Leicester City remains Ebou Adams’ injury return date.

But the Pompey boss is not closing the door on his key midfielder being back in action before the Foxes arrive at Fratton Park on April 18.

And Mousinho has confirmed there should be clarity on the extent of Zak Swanson’s knee injury tomorrow, as the full-back missed his second game of the Easter period.

The Blues head coach explained the hope is the former Arsenal man will be able to play on with the issue, with everything at stake in terms of the Championship survival fight with six games to go.

Pompey’s campaign has been decimated by an unrelenting tale of injury woe, but there has been signs of those problems beginning to alleviate at a big moment in the campaign.

Adams has missed the past two games with a knee issue picked up in the 6-1 battering at QPR last month, with the January signing making a huge impact in his 14 appearances before the setback.

Mousinho explained he expects Adams to miss the games against Middlesbrough and Ipswich Town, though he knows the midfielder will be fighting to be back sooner.

And, with Swanson, there will be clarity over his issue by the time the Pompey boss next addresses the media on Wednesday.

Mousinho said: ‘We’re still waiting for the report from the specialist on Zak because of the holidays.

‘So we’re waiting to nail that down. There’s something there, but it’s case of whether Zak can get on with it. We’ll see how everything is on Tuesday and we’ll go from there.

‘We’re expecting to have Ebou back for the Leicester game.

‘We’ll have him back for Leicester and there will be four games to play at that point. If we can get him back before that we would, but we’ll see.’

Meanwhile, Andre Dozzell impressed for Pompey as he started his first game in seven weeks after being sidelined with an ankle issue

Dozzell completed the full 90 minutes on his starting comeback, after a cameo on Good Friday in the 1-1 draw at Norwich City.

That was a heavy load for the full midfielder, but Mousinho stated there’s no concerns over the 26-year-old having his minutes managed after being out of contention.

Mousinho added: ‘Andre’s fine, he’s a fit lad. He’ll be fit for Middlesbrough.

Pompey travel to promotion-chasing Boro next for the longest trip of the season, before returning to PO4 to face Ipswich Town on April 14.

They did so after playing 73 minutes of the Oxford clash with 10 men after Connor Ogilvie’s controversial dismissal.

That meant a heavy load on Keshi Anderson on his first Pompey start following 11 games out with a hamstring issue, with Gustavo Caballero grafting and impressing on the right flank.

Mousinho said: ‘Keshi was outstanding considering it was his first start for us and first game since January.

‘Gus does that with his output anyway, but maybe he gave even more.

‘They were brilliant, hence we kept Keshi on for as long as we could and didn’t take Keshi off.

‘The only sad thing is we were deprived of seeing more of Keshi’s attacking performance, because of the defending he had to do.’