BREAKING: Portsmouth prepare list of transfer targets as they plot next move after midfielder surgery

Now the Blues need to plot the way forward, as they decide whether they need to dip into the market again after talks yesterday.

A tea-time meeting was held yesterday at the club’s Copnor Road training base involving the football operation and recruitment staff.

Now the decision has to be made whether to mobilise again in the transfer market, after bringing in 13 new faces this summer.

Pompey boss John Mousinho said: ‘Before Tom Lowery’s injury we were done, the only consideration was whether something popped up we weren’t aware of or something came up - we’re always monitoring the market for something like that.

‘Since Tom’s injury we’ve knocked our heads together for a possible list of who would be there to potentially replace him.

‘We will get a bit more news in terms of timescale once Tom’s had his surgery and we’re also meeting with the recruitment team to go over some of those options, see where we are financially and in terms of squad balance. All of those sort of things we are going to take into consideration.’

A significant consideration for Mousinho and Pompey now is whether moving for another addition is sensible, when there are already a number of players not making the matchday squad.

Ben Stevenson, Terry Devlin and Ryley Towler all found themselves in that situation against Exeter on Tuesday night, with the group further bolstered by Paddy Lane’s return to fitness.

Mousinho added: ‘It’s a tough one. With Paddy coming back to full fitness we have an extra body around and we have to make sure the balance of the squad is right - we don’t bring in another player just for the sake of it.

‘We have players currently not playing who are challenging for first-team spots.

‘We have that because we are going to get injuries and suspensions. We also have to look at that and how it will impact us for a pretty brutal run of games.

‘We have eight games in August and nine in less than 30 days. All of this comes into consideration and we think about it every day.’