‘All up in the air’: How things stand for out-of-favour £1m man as former Leicester City and Peterborough United defender fights for Portsmouth future
The Hannover 96 signing had a difficult maiden season at Fratton Park - John Mousinho assesses the outlook for the central defender.
Josh Knight will be considered for a starting role at Pompey next term.
But the £1m defender needs to be ‘at it’ in pre-season, as John Mousinho weighs up his squad options for the campaign ahead.
Pompey boss give verdict on Josh Knight’s Fratton future
Knight is facing a fight to prove his worth after a disappointing injury-hit maiden campaign at Fratton Park, following his arrival from Hannover 96.
The centre-back made just 15 appearances before suffering a back stress fracture, with his final appearance of the season coming in November.
Pompey kept a space open in their 25-man squad in the new year, but opted to hand that to Florian Bianchini as Knight returned to fitness at the end of the season - ending his campaign prematurely.
Now though Mousinho is ready to make a fresh assessment of the former Leicester City and Peterborough United man, who joined the rest of his team-mates for the first day of pre-season training on Monday.
Mousinho said: ‘Josh is back in full training for us, he was at the end of last year it was just we ran out of squad space.
‘Josh is a player we have who was unlucky with injuries last year.
‘The timing was horrible for him towards the end of the season where we had to be really short term.
‘We unfortunately had to have that conversation where we said we weren’t able to register him, because we had fit centre-backs.
‘Flo (Bianchini) ended up taking that last spot, because we didn’t have any fit wingers. We were really struggling with wingers at the back end of the year.
‘So it’s now just for Josh to come back in and be at it in pre-season.
‘He can then fight for one of those starting spots, because they are all up in the air at the minute.’
Mousinho has made it clear Knight joins a number of other squad players who will be assessed over the coming weeks, before he makes a call over where they are headed this term.
The Pompey head coach is said Harvey Blair and Franco Umeh will be looked at closely, but has indicated Ibane Bowat can move on in the summer window.
That also looks to be the case for defender Jacob Farrell, after a difficult couple of years with Pompey after joining from Central Coast Mariners.
Mousinho has indicated up to six players will be sold, as he aims to up the level of his squad for the campaign ahead.
But there is the chance for players to catch his eye in the weeks ahead.
He added: ‘You’ve got a massive chance in pre-season to prove what you can do.
‘There will be players who prove the manager right and prove the manager wrong.
‘There’s plenty of games, plenty of training and plenty of opportunities for players to step up.’