The Pompey boss is bracing himself for the luxury of a swollen pool of Blues players to select from before the month is out as his walking wounded continue to make steady progress during their time on the sidelines.
On-loan Brighton striker Mark O’Mahony (side strain) is the player closest to returning to the fold, after both Jordan Williams (hamstring) and Jacob Farrell (knee) were deemed available for the New Year’s Day win against Swansea – although only the former made the match-day squad for the visit of the Swans.
But defensive duo Regan Poole and Conor Shaughnessy are also arrowing in on comebacks following their troubles with injury this term.
The breaks were applied to Poole’s impressive return from an ACL injury in December, after he suffered a hamstring injury against Norwich. Meanwhile, centre-back partner Shaughnessy has missed the Blues past 21 matches with a calf issue.
Only Ibane Bowatt and Kusini Yengi (both knee injuries) will remain unavailable for selection beyond January. But with the Blues boss also expected to bolster his options in the January transfer window with at least four new additions, there’s hope he’ll have a positive selection headache come the end of the month – rather than the injury and fatigued-based problems he’s experienced in recent weeks.
Providing an update on his squad’s availability ahead of Sunday’s trip to Sunderland, Mousinho said: ‘Mark’s the closest in behind that one (the returns of Williams and Farrell). Mark’s been out, been at and hopefully we’re going to see him back in training within the next week.
‘And, yeah, we’re constantly monitoring Shocks (Shaughnessy) and Regan – I don’t think they’re too far away. I’ve put timescales on the pair of them before and it hasn’t actually worked out to be the case, so I’m sort of reluctant to do that again. But we’re making sure we’re pushing them as hard as we possibly can to get back into the side without risking anything.
‘I would expect them to be back by the end of January (though). The only ones you wouldn’t necessarily see before the end of January… you know about Ibane, who’s out for the season, while Kusini is still in a knee brace. He’s still got a couple more weeks in the knee brace he has to complete before he’s ready to get back.’
Pompey have a further eight fixtures to complete between now and February 1: Sunderland (Jan 5), Wycombe (Jan 10 – FA Cup), Blackburn (Jan 15), Middlesbrough (Jan 18), Stoke (Jan 22), WBA (Jan 25), Millwall (Jan 28) and Burnley (Feb 1).
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