Pompey boss lifts lid on Lowe injury deception

Pompey's winger grabbed the only goal of Saturday's game to earn a winning start to their League One campaign.

Yet earlier in the week Jackett had informed local media the 24-year-old would be out for up to three weeks with an ankle ligament problem.

The injury had forced Lowe off against FC Utrecht the previous weekend.

As it turned out, he returned to training midweek '“ and walked straight back into Jackett's first-team plans for the visit of the Hatters.

The Blues boss added: '˜Jamal trained midweek and did enough to start and is okay.

'˜I could see it building up and just really decide to run with it. People were telling me he was out and I didn't deny it. You can't believe everything you read in the papers, all the time.

'˜I am sure you all know the situation was there, whether it gave us an advantage or not I don't know.

'˜Maybe, sometimes if it's there you have to use it.

'˜He had an ankle injury, obviously, and people saw him come off last week.

'˜Everybody was thinking it was probably worse than it was, but he recovered pretty well and, by midweek, was 100 per cent.

'˜I always thought he was going to play. Obviously you are waiting for training sessions, but by midweek it looked very optimistic.'

Meanwhile, Pompey await news on Nathan Thompson's left knee after the right-back was forced off on 71 minutes.