Jamal Lowe fears strong-arm tactics could hamper Ronan Curtis’ early Portsmouth return

And the winger believes some supporters ‘underestimate’ the seriousness of playing football with severe finger damage.

Curtis is battling to declare himself available for the Checkatrade Trophy final at Wembley.

The Irishman chopped the top off a finger on his left hand after trapping it in a door at his Old Portsmouth home last week.

According to the surgeon who operated on Curtis’ finger, his footballing absence will span 4-6 weeks.

Lowe can empathise the difficulties players face when performing with such injuries.

And he acknowledges some members of the opposition could decide to take advantage.

He said: ‘Ronan’s finger is in a bad way, but he wants to play.

‘If you know him, you’ll know he wants to play, he’s not the type of person who cannot be bothered to play.

‘People underestimate how bad the finger is, but if anyone touches him he’ll be in agony. You can’t hold off anyone, can't take a throw-in, the ball could hit you there, there’s so many different factors.

‘You use your arms quite a bit to shield the ball, even running will probably hurt when swinging his arms.

‘Ronan’s the type of player who gets a lot of tackles on him, putting your hands down to stop your fall will be a problem, people could even step on your finger again. It’s a dangerous one.

‘Of course opponents would target it, it has been done.

‘You see someone with a strap on their wrist, padding on their ankle from the previous week which you know they hurt, people do silly stuff like that, it happens.

‘Even with Matt Clarke, I’m sure he will probably get targeted for having a headband. Give him a little whack, it starts bleeding again and we’re down to 10 men for a while.

‘People think of doing stuff like this, it's not unheard of, you could even imagine someone squeezing his finger.’

Curtis has so far been sidelined from successive Pompey victories against Walsall and Scunthorpe.

He has also pulled out of the Republic of Ireland squad for upcoming Euro 2020 qualifiers against Gibraltar and Georgia.

Wembley appears a tough ask – but Lowe knows his team-mate will not be giving up.

He added: ‘I wouldn’t rule Ronan out. Being the sort of person he is, if there’s any chance he will take that.

‘With Wembley and the Ireland call-up, it’s awful timing for him.

‘There’s no good time to get injured, especially when you’re called into an international squad and it’s crunch time in the league season.

‘He’s a big player for us and that is where the squad has to step up.’