While the Blues are tantalisingly closing in on Championship survival, their head coach is also encouraged over the declining injury list.
With Christian Saydee (groin)Â and Jordan Williams (hamstring) expected to return by Blackburn on March 29, it leaves just Conor Shaughnessy and Rob Atkinson to return this season.
Of course, Pompey still have another five players ruled out for the remainder of the campaign, thereby missing the final 10 matches.
Nonetheless, with the international break on the horizon after Saturday’s trip to Preston, Mousinho has every reason to be heartened.
He told The News: ‘Jordan Williams is one of the short-term ones, we should have him back for Blackburn.
‘While I don’t want to put a timescale on others, hopefully what we are looking at is all of a sudden – at the back-end of the international break – Shocks will be six weeks into his recovery for a 6-8 week injury.
‘Rob Atkinson will all of a sudden be four weeks into his recovery. If we can get through that international break and get to the back-end of it, some of those ones that felt really long-term are a lot closer.
‘At the time with the likes of Shocks and Rob, when you say 6-8 weeks at that point, you feel they are really long-term blows.
‘Mind you, when we say things are looking good, there’s inevitably going to be something else! One of the pleasing things is the squad at the moment has managed to step in and step up – and we’ve managed to cope with that.’
Recent injury boosts for Blues
Jacob Farrell, Callum Lang, Paddy Lane, Hayden Matthews and Ibane Bowat will not play again this season through injury.
Lang, in particular, is a huge blow. Still the Blues’ leading scorer, he was firmly a contender for player of the season until tearing his hamstring at Oxford United last month.
As for Hayden Matthews, he was establishing himself as a hugely impressive signing before sustaining ankle damage late on against QPR which required surgery.
Still, Freddie Potts, Kusini Yengi, Mark O’Mahony and Thomas Waddingham have recently returned from lay-offs, with all named in Pompey’s 20-man squad for the 1-0 victory against Leeds.
Coupled with the signing of former Sweden international Alexander Milosevic and suddenly Mousinho finds himself with growing options.
He added: ‘Tom Waddingham returned to the squad against Leeds, which was timely because of the fact we had picked up a couple of injuries.
‘So at centre-forward, where Colby was carrying all the workload for a number of weeks, all of a sudden we’ve got Tom, Mark (O’Mahony) and Kusini, so we’ve got plenty of options.
‘We are a bit thin elsewhere, but with Alex (Milosevic) coming into the building as well, it bolsters us at centre-half and we are looking a bit more balanced across the board.’
Discussion about this post