Portsmouth sweating on Colby Bishop facing Watford as Blues boss delivers detailed injury update on squad

Although John Mousinho has ruled out Thomas Waddingham and Alexander Milosevic from being involved again this season.

Bishop was forced off in the 75th minute of Friday’s 5-3 triumph at Norwich after collecting a knock to his knee, with Kusini Yengi replacing him.

Since returning from open heart surgery in November, the popular striker has made 28 successive Championship appearances.

However, that remarkable record is under threat as Pompey look ahead to Watford on Bank Holiday Monday, when victory would seal Championship safety.

Mousinho told The News: ‘Colby took a knock to his knee, so he has iced that. I don’t know how bad it is, we will assess him over the weekend.

‘He has very, very rarely come off in games. Unless he’s had open heart surgery, he missed two matches after picking up an ankle strain at Burton (November 2023).

‘Apart from that, you know with Colby that he will play, particularly as he’s really hungry for goals. Whether he got this hat-trick or not, he really wanted to stay on against Norwich.

‘So we’ll see how it is ahead of Monday’s game.’

Duo won’t be back

Pompey will also assess Rob Atkinson, after completing 85 minutes against Norwich, before being withdrawn to protect him.

Conor Shaughnessy (hamstring) and Callum Lang (hamstring) are both nearing comebacks, yet Mousinho admits Monday may be too soon for the influential pair.

The Blues are also waiting to learn Waddingham’s scan results on the hamstring he damaged following his full debut at Coventry.

But Mousinho doesn’t expect the Australian or Milosevic (calf) to be available for the final three matches of the season against Watford, Sheffield Wednesday or Hull.

He added: ‘I don't think we’ll have anybody back for Monday, we just have to take care of the ones who played on Friday.

‘There’s Colby with a knock and we’ll see how Rob Atkinson. He was fine against Norwich, but obviously tiring. It took him a while to recover last week and we are really glad to have him back.

‘Shaughnessy is slightly different to Rob. Rob has been available for 90 per cent of the season, he was available for the first six months for Bristol City. He obviously missed out for a small period with us, but we felt we could get him back quicker because of that.

‘Whereas Shocks has been out for 37-odd games, so we have to be much more cautious with him. While Langy is 10 weeks into a 12-week injury, so it’s very, very unlikely that we will see him.

‘With Waddingham, we are awaiting the scan results, but I don’t think we will see Tom for the rest of the season. I also don’t think we will see Alex for the rest of the season.’

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