Sean Davis, Richard Hughes, Glen Little, Noe Pamarot yesterday returned to action for the first time since picking up pre-season knocks.

Davis and Hughes have been sidelined since suffering hip flexor injuries in the Havant & Waterlooville friendly earlier this month.

Noe Pamarot damaged his thigh in Nigeria while Glen Little tweaked a thigh in the build-up to the Community Shield.

Now the quartet are back in training and pushing for selection ahead of Monday's visit of Manchester United.

The presence of Davis, Hughes and Little in particular is crucial with Pompey short of numbers in midfield, a situation which saw Younes Kaboul pushed up into an unfamiliar role against Chelsea.

And first-team coach Joe Jordan admitted it's been a welcome return.

He said: 'There are players back this week who have been injured for a period of time and it's great to see.

'Richard Hughes, Sean Davis, Noe Pamarot and Glen Little all came back off the treatment table yesterday.

'It's a bit early to talk about Manchester United, we're talking about a week to go, a lot of things can happen there.

'But the four have joined us having been injured for two or three weeks and we'll see how their training goes, especially in the early part of the week.

'We'll see how fit they are and how much of a catch-up they have got to do. Some of them have played very little football due to their injuries in pre-season.'

Meanwhile, Kanu (ankle), David Nugent (groin) and Linvoy Primus (groin) have stepped up their rehab work outside.

Get all our Portsmouth FC stories straight to your inbox by Email.... click here to subscribe.