Portsmouth dealt major Josh Murphy injury blow ahead of Derby County
Pompey are expected to be without Josh Murphy for eight weeks.
Pompey have been dealt a major injury blow over Josh Murphy.
John Mousinho has confirmed the 31-year-old has undergone surgery to rectify an ongoing groin issue after suffering a recurrence against Lincoln City earlier this month.
And the head coach has revealed the winger is now expected to miss as much as eight weeks of action as a result of the procedure.
Murphy sustained the fresh setback during the Blues’ 3-1 triumph at Sincil Bank after coming off the bench but was forced to come off after just 17 minutes on the pitch.
It represents the latest blow for the 2024-25 Player of the Season, who was restricted to just 16 Championship appearances last term due to respective injury issues.
Pompey boss confirms surgery for Josh Murphy after injury setback
Although Pompey were managing his minutes on his return at the start of this season season, the ex-Norwich City and Cardiff City man is now expected to miss as much as eight weeks of action, including the south-coast derby with Southampton on October 10.
Providing the latest on Murphy’s fitness, Mousinho told The News: ‘So with Josh, we decided at the backend of last week that Josh is going to undergo a procedure to properly put to bed some of the groin issues he’s been having.
‘We were looking at the prognosis at the back of the Lincoln game and thought well the earliest Josh was going to be back was the international break, so he was going to be back for the derby game (against Southampton on October 10) at the back end of the international break.
‘That’s where we were prior to making a decision on it.
‘We then had the option to really strengthen the area and go in there and surgically strengthen that to help Josh out on a couple of bits. That’s going to keep him out for an extra two games at the back end of that break. So we thought that is probably the right thing to do.
‘If we could have that eight week return to play off the back of the procedure last week then we think that is a good return on where we’ve been and where we are.
‘Clearly we want Josh to be fit. He’s been unbelievably unlucky with the way he’s tried to get back into the fold, pushed his body for the team, pushed his body for us and what I’ve asked of him has meant that we need to take a step back and make sure we get him right for the rest of the season.
‘There are still plenty of games left by the time he comes back. It’s a blow. We hoped to have him fully fit for the entire season but we’re going to take what the current situation, which is not to try and keep flogging away with him and keep having issues like we did at Lincoln.’