Josh Murphy D-Day as Portsmouth learn fate over star man’s injury
Pompey boss John Mousinho has defended his injured star man playing through the Championship pain, with his injury outlook set to become clear.
Pompey will today find out when Josh Murphy is set to return to their Championship’s survival push.
The Blues are expected to learn when they will be able to call upon their star man once again, as he sees a specialist over the foot injury which is keeping him sidelined.
Murphy seeing specialist today to find out Pompey return date
And John Mousinho has defended playing the key figure while he carried a succession of different fitness issues, with it now nine games without the reigning player of the season.
Murphy has missed 17 fixtures this term, suffering a hamstring issue going into the campaign and then picking up an ankle problem against Southampton in September.
The 30-year-old returned in October, but then was relied on heavily as Pompey dealt with the injury crisis which has once again afflicted their season.
By the end of last year Murphy was receiving two injections per game and playing with a fractured metatarsal picked up at Swansea in December, in addition to hip and ankle issues.
A hamstring injury picked up at Derby then saw the winger sidelined, with Pompey now set to find out how long the metatarsal fracture will keep Murphy out for.
Mousinho isn’t prepared to speculate on that time frame, but feels the arrival from Oxford United playing through the pain for his team was necessary.
Mousinho on Murphy playing injured: ‘No real option to change him’
He said: ‘Josh’s got to see a specialist (today) about how that bone is healing, hopefully it’s progressed enough for him to get back out on the grass.
‘They’ve had the scan and the specialist will then read the scan. We’ll just wait until then and we will know more.
‘I don’t think so (there’s any injury doubts on Murphy’s part), I just think it needed time to settle down.
‘The biggest problem he had was when he came back, he just had to play 90 minutes after 90 minutes.
‘He played half an hour against Birmingham, which was very deliberate, and Wrexham was his first game (start). He played 90 minutes against Wrexham and 90 minutes against Hull.
‘We were happy with those two, because it was before the international break, then post-international break he was back in it with, in my opinion, no real option to change him.
‘When Harvey (Blair) came back in that gave a bit of a boost with another option, but as soon as Harvey was back Murph was injured. So we’ve not had the two being able to dovetail with each other.’
A clear date on Murphy’s return is something Mousinho is looking forward to, especially in a period where winger injuries are hitting Pompey hard.
The head coach feels his side have dealt with what is undoubtedly a seismic loss well, however, with Millenic Alli shining over recent weeks.
Mousinho added: ‘It’ll be nice to have him back.
‘There was the injury news at the start of the season, with his hamstring off the back of the PEC Zwolle game and we knew he wasn’t going to be available for the opening day of the season, it felt a huge hammer blow.
‘Obviously it is a huge hammer blow having Murph out, but we’ve obviously had to cope with it and deal with it.
‘I think one of the positives this season has been that.
‘If people like me and people at Portsmouth had predicted Murph would miss this period, and when he was playing he was carrying three, four or five injuries and nowhere near his best, I think people would have feared the worst in terms of league position and points accumulated.
‘So to be in the position we are now without our best player from last season, someone we would’ve hung our hat on, isn’t too bad.’