Portsmouth handed crucial injury boost ahead of south-coast derby against Southampton
Pompey had six players on international duty during the three-week break.
Pompey have been given a clean bill of health with their six returning internationals.
But John Mousinho has shared his frustrations at the extended three-week stoppage and calls on football’s governing bodies to find a ‘halfway house’.
The Blues return to Championship action this weekend as they face bitter rivals Southampton in the first south-coast derby of the campaign.
Pompey will be boosted by the availability of all six of their returning players from international in a timely pick-me-up ahead of the trip to St Mary’s.
Ryan Kavuma-McQueen starred in three outings for England U18s, Eoin Kenny captained Northern Ireland’s U21s during one of his three outings and Iyad Mohamed appeared three times for Comoros.
Terry Devlin featured once for Northern Ireland, Ebou Adams appeared twice for Gambia during their Africa Cup of Nations qualifications, while Adrian Segecic played three times to help Croatia progress to next year’s U21 Euros.
Pompey given clean bill of health over six internationals
And despite an action-packed three weeks for his six internationals, Mousinho has issued a clean bill of health over the returning group ahead of the Sunday’s south-coast derby.
The Blues boss told The News: ‘Yeah we had the last two back today (Thursday), Eoin (Kenny) and Segs (Adrian Segecic). There were a few others that have been coming back in dribs and drabs this week.
‘So we had Ebou (Adams) and Iyad (Mohamed) had been away and they played games.
‘Ryan (Kavuma-McQueen) had the final on Saturday with England, Terry (Devlin) played and then was on the bench the other night.
‘But we’ve got everybody back in the building now and they’ve all come back unscathed, which is good.
‘All fine. I think it’s been a good break from our perspective because Ebou’s got some minutes, Terry’s got some minutes but hasn’t been over worked.
‘Ryan, he probably didn’t need them but got minutes. Iyad is the one that has benefited the most from it because he’s gone and played for Comoros three times and built up his fitness on each of those three occasions and the same with Eoin.
‘Segs doesn’t necessarily need the fitness but he’s played a good part in the Croatia (U21) games as well.
‘I think it’s been pretty good from that standpoint to get the right balance and I don’t think any of them went away and were flogged and by the same token we haven’t had anyone that’s gone away and had absolutely no involvement at all.’
Pompey boss international break frustrations
Sunday’s south-coast derby brings an end to a staggering three-week break, with Pompey last in action on September 20.
‘A little bit of a mixture really. We wanted to get the balance right between the two of those things; resting and getting a good amount of time on the pitch.
‘It was long. It dragged on too long, I think that’s the sentiment for club and probably international managers as well so I think there’s a bit of frustration on both sides.
‘There’s probably a lot of players that have gone away on international duty and picked up injuries. Thankfully we haven’t so all of our boys they’ve been okay, especially the ones that have played some heavy minutes.
‘With that long training block, that disruption from the flow of the start of the season to where we are now, it’s difficult because if you go back to the way it was with three international breaks before Christmas that was too heavy. It was such a stop-start first half of the season.
‘If there can be some halfway house between the two but I don’t think we’ve found the right solution yet.’