Portsmouth key man's injury record under scrutiny as John Mousinho faced with Easter dilemma
The former Leeds man has made 13 appearances for Pompey in the 2025-26 season so far
John Mousinho is faced with a centre-half dilemma for Pompey’s crucial Easter weekend, with Conor Shaughnessy’s injury record again under scrutiny.
The Irishman is poised to retain his place at Norwich tomorrow (3pm), despite a disappointing return to the starting XI at QPR.
Other than his role in the fourth goal of the 6-1 defeat, scored by Rayan Kolli, Mousinho was satisfied with Shaughnessy’s overall performance in his first start for two months following injury.
However, the crucial issue with the former Leeds man centres on whether is physically able to play two games in 72 hours after another injury-hit season.
Yet with Pompey heading to Carrow Road on Friday, followed by a home clash with Oxford United on Bank Holiday Monday (12.30pm), the Blues will be desperate to utilise Shaughnessy in both.
‘I didn’t think anything else was necessarily a reflection on his performance’
Mousinho told The News: ‘I’m not even thinking about the Oxford game at the moment, I will just make the decision based on Norwich and then see how he is after that.
‘Shocks was disappointed for the fourth goal against QPR, apart from that I didn’t think anything else was necessarily a reflection on his performance.
‘When that fourth goal went in, we decided to protect Shocks and bring him off the pitch. Collectively, I don’t think anybody came off the pitch thinking they had produced a stellar performance.
‘We were always going to bring him off after about 70 minutes, that was the maximum he was going to play. At that point, with that fourth goal going in, I thought we could make that change and try to freshen things up, have a bit of a different impetus down that left-hand side with Swanny coming on.
‘We’ll see what happens after Norwich. We’ll see what the nature of the game is, how much there is in terms of an output, how Shocks feels on the Saturday - and then go from there.
‘That’s one we are going to play by ear, we need to do everything we possibly can to win the game on Friday - and then go from there.’
Pompey well-stocked for central defenders
Mousinho is well-stocked for centre-halves at the moment, with Ibane Bowat and Hayden Matthews unable to break into the match-day 20 at QPR, despite being available.
Certainly the versatility of Connor Ogilvie has provided another option, having previously stood in for Shaughnessy since January for 11 matches.
However, irrespective of the QPR 6-1 humbling, the Shaughnessy-Regan Poole partnership remains the strongest in the club at present - and definitely preferred by Mousinho.
Although he may be forced to split them up should Oxford prove a game too far for the Irishman.
‘We have to fully focus on Norwich’
Mousinho added: ‘I don’t think you can look at Oxford right now, you can’t afford to do that at the moment. We have to fully focus on Norwich, they are both worth three points.
‘If we actually get something against Norwich, it’s massive, it gives us impetus going into the Oxford game.
‘We can’t afford to look at any other games this season and think they are more important or less important than others.
‘Obviously when you play against the likes of Oxford and Leicester they are down there with you, so it might feel a bit different. But we need to try to pick up as many points as we can.’