‘Massive blow’: Portsmouth Callum Lang setback and winger transfer latest as key man sidelined
The Pompey boss delivers more details on the picture of Callum Lang’s concerning Norwich City - and the winger transfer picture after the Scouser’s setback.
Pompey are fearing the worst after being dealt a 'massive blow' by Callum Lang's latest injury.
But John Mousinho doesn't feel the key man's absence changes the transfer picture over his club's winger chase.
Pompey boss: ‘It’s a massive blow to lose Lang’
The Blues are waiting to hear the extent of Lang's hamstring injury, after he was forced off in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat by Norwich City.
Mousinho expects to know more about the issue early next week, with the key attacker missing two months of last term and impacted in pre-season by the issue.
Lang being absent for any period of time is a blow and places more focus on Pompey’s winger hunt, which is viewed as a key area of recruitment by Mousinho before the close of the summer window.
But the head coach explained, in his view, the 26-year-old doesn’t particularly intensify a player search already seen as significant.
Mousinho said: ‘Callum felt his hamstring so we’ll see how it settles down.
‘It’s a massive blow to lose him but we’ll look at him and know more by next Wednesday (when Mousinho is next due to speak to the press).
‘I don’t know if it’s a recurrence of a hamstring injury, but it’s a hamstring injury so we’ll see how he gets on with that one.
‘I think somebody said to me he’s struggling with his hamstring straightaway, so I shouted on to see if he was okay and he gave it that one (he wasn’t sure) which told me it wasn’t.
‘It was unfortunate because Murph (Murphy) got down the left and crossed and that would’ve been where Langy would’ve been. Everyone was a bit frustrated but didn’t realise (he’d injured his hamstring) otherwise Callum would’ve been there.
‘We were focussed on adding in the wide areas anyway and that’s where Callum has been playing.
‘We still thought it was a real priority to strengthen in wide areas, so I don’t think Callum’s injury necessarily changes anything - we’ll just continue in that vein.’
Murphy picture after Pompey return
Lang’s injury blow came on the same afternoon Josh Murphy returned to the fray, with Mousinho indicating the key winger would miss the Norwich clash.
The Pompey boss’ injury updates have been a subject of focus after Colby Bishop featured on the opening day against Oxford, despite the head coach stating a groin issue would keep the striker out.
Mousinho explained Murphy was genuinely a doubt as he was talent off after 70 minutes, with the issue needing to be managed moving forward.
He added: ‘That’s why we brought Murph off. He hasn’t had a huge amount of training but we decided to go with him because of the importance of the game.
‘So we were glad to get him through unscathed and we’ll now build him up next week for West Brom.’