‘Thin on the ground’: Portsmouth boss John Mousinho provides worrying injury outlook with 14 out for Charlton Athletic trip
Pompey face relegation rivals Charlton Athletic at The Valley this evening.
John Mousinho has insisted Pompey remain ‘thin on the ground’ ahead of this evening’s crucial contest against Charlton Athletic
But the head coach is confident he will have 20 fit pros to select from as injuries continue to decimate his squad.
After blows to Keshi Anderson (hamstring), Conor Chaplin (groin) and Aji Alese (quad), the Blues suffered two further concerns against Sheffield United on Saturday.
The duo’s set-backs take Pompey’s tally of injured players up 14, leaving the head coach with a thread-bare squad in the midst of a run of five games in 15 days.
Although Mousinho is adamant he will have 20 fit pros to choose from at The Valley this evening, he has detailed the Blues’ current injury situation.
John Mousinho’s concerning Pompey injury outlook
He told The News: ‘It’s looking alright. We’ve picked up injuries and we’re thin on the ground anyway but we’ve had a pretty solid starting XI for the past few weeks.
‘We’ve had to change that around slightly with obviously the injuries we picked up going into the weekend with Chappers (Conor Chaplin) coming out the side.
‘We just have to deal with it the best we possibly can with the squad we’ve got.
‘The injury list is absolutely massive. There’s nothing much we can do. Fortunately, we signed seven players in January otherwise we would have been in a very different position.
‘If you look at the players that were affecting the squad over the past few months, we didn’t let a huge amount of numbers go to think ‘oh actually we signed seven players but we also let five or six go’.
‘That wasn’t the case so it’s been fortunate that we’ve signed the players we’ve signed to actually make sure we can fill out the squad.
‘That was one of the reasons behind (signing so many players), I know the question’s been asked here, and I had a smile when I said it’s not going to happen (that they’d sign so many players).
‘I’m telling you because it’s the nature of the schedule and the fixture list with how many games we’ve got, the fact that we picked up two contract injuries on the weekend - so nothing we can do about those.
‘Nothing we can do about Dozz (Andre Dozzell) or Segs’ (Adrian Segecic) contact injuries.
‘We’re never going to have a clean bill of health. If we had 22 fit pros to play on a matchday squad, I think we’d be in a luxurious position considering where we’ve been this season.
‘If we can get 20 pros together and get them out then we’ll be happy with that.’