Portsmouth boss sounds injury warning with fears of further fitness setbacks
Pompey have been decimated by injuries in recent seasons - and John Mousinho sees more issues to come as their Championship schedule intensifies after the international break.
John Mousinho fears more injury woe is on the horizon for Pompey.
The Blues boss admitted he feels more of the club’s unrelenting fitness pain is to come, as their Championship schedule intensifies after the international break.
Mousinho on fixtures after break: ‘Going to pick up a few injuries then’
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And Mousinho believes the club’s decision to focus on strengthening out wide this summer has already been justified, with a host of his wingers in the treatment room.
Pompey complete their final Championship fixture before the international break, as Blackburn Rovers arrive at Fratton Park this afternoon.
There is then a three-week pause for league action before the south-coast derby with Southampton kickstarts a gruelling run of five league games in 13 days.
Sheffield United (home), Norwich (away), Wolves (away) and Millwall (home) make up the other fixtures after the trip to St Mary’s Stadium.
That’s going to be a sizable test for Pompey’s squad, who is already without Josh Murphy (groin), Connor Ogilvie (knee), Keshi Anderson (quad), Luke Brooke-Smith (ankle), Franco Umeh (hamstring) Thomas Waddingham (ankle) and Mark Kosznovszky (knee).
Of that group Murphy, Anderson, Brooke-Smith and Umeh all operate in wide areas, which Mousinho feels shows why there was a focus on strengthening in that area of the pitch this summer.
He said: ‘We’ve potentially got more players than we can register when everyone is back fit.
‘So, in terms of numbers, we can’t really do any more and we’re quite heavy in terms of squad numbers.
‘I do think more generally the issue around restricting squad numbers doesn’t match up with the demands of Championship football.
‘You will now see clubs not being able to fill benches, not because they don’t have the players but because they don’t have the registration places.
‘So I do think that needs adjusting, but the reason I say that is because we have numbers in there but after the international games we go Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday.
‘We’re going to pick up a few injuries then, hopefully not too many.
‘I think we have pretty much two players for every position, that was the goal at the start of the summer.
‘What we need to try to do now is cope with some of those injuries we’ve had.
‘We’ve probably gone a bit heavy at the top end of the pitch with recruitment, but I think that’s been justified already because we’ve got Murphy, Keshi, Franco and now Luke out.
‘We rely heavily on those at the top end of the pitch.
‘So in terms of depth we can’t do anymore. We can’t go any deeper in terms of depth, we physically can’t do it because the second we do we run out of spaces.’