The popular striker was an unused substitute at Wycombe for an FA Cup clash in which the Blues head coach implemented nine changes.
Since memorably marking his return off the bench against Preston with a goal in November, Bishop has started nine successive Championship matches.
Mousinho chose last week’s trip to Adams Park as an occasion to hand the 28-year-old his first breather since that first-team comeback.
Pompey’s boss insists he would be the ‘world’s biggest idiot’ had he decided to subsequently throw Bishop on in the 2-0 defeat.
Now the former Accrington man is in line for a return to the starting XI at Blackburn tonight (7.45pm).
Mousinho told The News: ‘We need to handle Colby.
‘My take at Wycombe was should I bring Colby on now and he gets injured in these conditions in the weather, everybody would look at me like I’m the world’s biggest idiot – and I would feel the same as well.
‘That was what the decision about Colby was about, he’d played so many games. He was one of those that didn’t get a rest at Bristol City, we’ve relied on him to go again and again, having come off the back of major, major surgery. So it felt like a natural opportunity for him to get a rest.
‘Since Colby has been back, the home games we’ve been in and the home games we’ve won, he has performed really well.
‘When we are 3-0 up at home in the 85th minute, it still doesn’t feel like we are done and Colby’s leading the line and doing really well, so I don’t want to disrupt things, I want to make sure we finish the game.
‘I want to make sure we get the points in the bag, it’s so important to us this year – and I have been like that for the majority of my time with Colby.
‘He defends set-pieces and leads the line really, he’s a massive physical threat, so that has been the rationale behind keeping him on in games.
‘There have been a couple of matches where, as the game’s worn on, we have probably been out of it – Derby and Bristol City – and we’ve brought him off. But, apart from that, all of those games have been relatively tight, so keeping him on seemed like the best option.’
Bishop averages 81 minutes on the pitch since handed his first start of the season in November’s 2-2 draw at Swansea.
While he has completed the full 90 minutes in three of the last five matches he has started, demonstrating his remarkable fitness levels.
And Mousinho is confident Bishop won’t suffer the same niggling injuries which have impacted Regan Poole following surgery and a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
He added: ‘I think Colby is slightly different to Regan.
‘From a very, very early stage of his surgery, Colby was back out on the grass and able to run and put strength into his legs. That’s not something that the other lads have had the luxury of doing.
‘If you look at Regan’s injury when he has torn his ACL, he’s had the hamstring graft on that right-side hamstring, which means that when you come back from those sort of injuries, first of all you are off your feet for so long, you are on crutches, you can’t do anything. Then it’s about building your strength in the lower limbs.
‘Colby’s was completely different, a unique injury in football, so I haven’t really got to worry about that with him.’
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