John Mousinho’s Fitness Warning Over Portsmouth Newcomers

John Mousinho has unveiled his first-team pathway for Pompey’s transfer newcomers.

Rob Atkinson and Isaac Hayden have both arrived at Fratton Park short of games and lacking in match fitness.

Atkinson hadn’t featured in a first-team fixture since February 2023, before his Blues debut off the bench at Sunderland earlier this month.

While Hayden made his bow in Wednesday night’s 3-0 defeat at Blackburn – representing his first Championship game in eight-and-a-half months.

Now Mousinho is plotting how best to ease the pair into his Pompey starting line-up to aid the battle against relegation.

‘I don’t necessarily feel that would be the case with Isaac, who we need to build his match fitness up and make sure he’s sharp enough to play in the Championship.

‘Rob now has three games for us and you’ve got to keep building him up. The next step is to get 70-75 minutes and then close to 90. It’s just how we weigh that up over the next few weeks.

‘It’s going to be an interesting challenge for us. We have to weigh up whether we can play him against Middlesbrough off the back of Wednesday night. Then, if he plays on Saturday, can we play him against Stoke, etc, etc? So we have to be careful of that.

‘It’s part and parcel of the job, we’ll try to do that as best as we can and make sure we protect Rob, which is the most important thing.’

Atkinson started his second successive match for the Blues in the Ewood Park defeat, following on from his FA Cup full debut against Wycombe.

The scoreline was 1-0 when he was replaced in the 66th minute by Ryley Towler in a predetermined change designed to protect him.

It remains to be seen whether he will retain his place for Saturday’s visit against Middlesbrough – or if Pompey decide against risking him.

Mousinho added: ‘I thought Rob was really, really solid against Blackburn, he defended really well.

‘Unfortunately we had to bring him off, otherwise we wouldn’t have done. It wasn’t anything other than protecting Rob, so I’m really pleased with that off the back of a really positive performance against Sunderland.

‘It probably wasn’t his best display against Wycombe, but that was his first start in difficult circumstances. So to come into this first league start on Wednesday night, I was really pleased.’