'Touch wood' - Portsmouth boss John Mousinho makes injury observation as key figure in contention to face Millwall
John Mousinho is boosting ‘decent numbers’ as he prepares his side for Saturday’s Championship trip to Millwall.
The Pompey boss revealed he had up to 24 outfield players participating in training on Wednesday as final preparations are put in place for the game at The Den.
Among them was striker Kusini Yengi, who is in contention for the Blues’ visit to the capital.
Central defensive duo Conor Shaughnessy and Rob Atkinson were also part of the first-team group involved in the latest session.
And while neither of the centre-backs will feature against Alex Neil’s side, despite them edging ever closer to their comeback dates, Mousinho was predicting a rare selection headache amid a season that has produced many injury obstacles.
Speaking ahead of the Millwall game, the Blues boss told The News: ‘It always happens. It'll be a completely different picture, I'm sure, at some point. But that's the way it seems.
‘Feasts or famine sometimes - it's been like that this season. We've looked at situations where we've left four or five out of squads, we've looked at other situations where we've called up players from the academy to fill the squad, and there doesn't really ever seem to be anything in between.
‘So I think, touch wood, hopefully, we get a decent report this afternoon that everybody's come through today's training session, which I think they have.
‘We'll go again on Friday, and then after Friday, we'll hopefully have a decent enough squad to pick from.’
Mousinho added: ‘We've trained with, I think, 24 or 23 outfield players today, so we're back up to some decent numbers.
‘We've got quite a few that have come back in over the last couple of weeks.
‘I think in terms of the headlines, the big headline is Kas (Kusini Yengi) is back in full training. Other than that, the short-termers are back in and returning.
‘We haven't got the long-termers back yet, but they're very, very close to returning to training - the likes of Conor Shaughnessy and Rob Atkinson.
‘They've taken a step in the right direction, they've been out on the grass every day for the past couple of weeks. They're not quite ready for the weekend, but we've got a pretty healthy squad to pick from at the moment.’
Kusini Yengi back for Millwall
Yengi picked up a hamstring injury while training with the Australia national team during March’s international break.
He returned to Fratton Park without kicking a ball for the Socceroos and sat out last weekend’s home win against Blackburn Rovers.
The 26-year-old, who is out of contract at the end of the season, was spotted preparing for training on Monday in a video put out by the club - the first hint that he was back and available for Millwall.
Now Mousinho has confirmed the forward’s potential involvement.
When asked if Yengi was ahead of schedule in his recovery, the head coach said: ‘He's bang on schedule. Kas trained on Saturday morning, (was) back in full training on Monday. Yes (he’s in contention for the Millwall game).
Victory for Pompey at The Den would take them another huge step closer to Championship safety, with the 17th-placed Blues currently seven points clear of the relegation zone with seven games left to play. That gap might close to five points tonight as third-from-bottom Derby welcome Preston North End to Pride Park with the chance of climbing out of the bottom three.