12 operations, 10 long-term injuries, 6 players out for season - How luckless Portsmouth are defying the odds in League One promotion battle

John Mousinho was driving to Cambridge when triumphant club secretary Ali Knell called to deliver the glorious news that Tom McIntyre’s red card had been rescinded.

Pompey’s head coach struggled to share the joy, having been informed 30 minutes previous that the defender wouldn’t play again this season.

Within four days of arriving at Fratton Park, the new £75,000 recruit from Reading had been sent off, broken his left ankle, and ruled out of their promotion push.

The 25-year-old’s misfortune is symptomatic of the wretched injury luck which has dogged the League One leaders this term.

Staggeringly, in this current campaign, McIntyre has become the 10th different player to be sidelined for more than three months, of which six are out for the season.

That tally includes Tino Anjorin, who has still to return to training after tearing his hamstring at Chesterfield at the start of November and is now pencilled in for a March playing comeback.

Indeed, since Josh Dockerill became the first serious casualty when he suffered ACL damage to his right knee at a friendly at Gosport in July, a total of 12 different members of John Mousinho’s squad have required surgery.

For those that way inclined, a Pompey Operation XI could easily be drawn up, helpfully featuring Josh Oluwayemi as goalkeeper, having broken his left thumb while training with Chelmsford during a loan spell.

Of course, as Mousinho has demonstrated on occasions, a little gallows humour is necessary to lift the gloom, particularly following the latest bombshell - the loss of McIntyre, Joe Morrell and Terry Devlin inside four days.

Morrell (knee) and Devlin (shoulder) collected their injuries in the opening 34 minutes of the midweek trip to Oxford United, with the former subsequently undergoing surgery on Wednesday.

They were soon joined by McIntyre in the following match against Northampton, when his 50/50 with Mitch Pinnock on 54 minutes resulted in a fractured ankle and, bafflingly, a red card.

The Pompey man’s challenge was curiously described as ‘horrendous’ by Northampton’s official Twitter feed and boss Jon Brady. Thankfully, the FA’s appeals panel didn’t agree, unsurprisingly overhauling the decision just hours after the Blues lodged their protest.

The trio join Dockerill, Regan Poole (ACL) and Alex Robertson (hamstring) in being ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.

Others to have endured lengthy spells away from the first-team this season are Tom Lowery (five months), Anthony Scully (four months) and Anjorin, who remains on the treatment table three months in.

As for Conor Ogilvie, he injured his groin at Barnsley and then damaged ankle ligaments 10 seconds into his comeback at Cambridge United, totalling four months away.

Previously believed to be impervious to injuries following 91 appearances in two seasons, the fact the indestructible left-back has currently missed 21 matches this term is, in itself, alarming.

It’s worth remembering that, last summer, the Blues relaid pitches at their Copnor Road training ground and overhauled their medical department, including the appointment of Steve Hard, who spent 15 years as Bournemouth’s head physio.

The moves were designed to cut down on a frustrating injury record under predecessor Danny Cowley, later publicly highlighted by then physio Bobby Bacic, who incidentally didn’t remain at Fratton Park much longer.

Yet still the injuries have continued to wrack up, albeit it’s the severity and length of absence which are really hurting the Blues, rather than numbers of casualties.

It’s also worth pointing out that, of the 10 long-term injuries sustained this season, nine occurred during first-team matches. Despite ongoing accusations about standards of training ground pitches, only Robertson’s was sustained there.

Irrespective of the crippling injury list, Pompey’s wise decision to ‘overinflate’ their playing squad in January still leaves Mousinho with 22 players to choose from for Saturday’s trip to Carlisle.

Remarkably, a team robbed of star performers the calibre of Poole, Robertson and Morrell for the remainder of the season are four points clear at the top of League One.

Should promotion be achieved in such testing circumstances, it would truly be a phenomenal achievement.