Crisis club London Irish's head physio ditches rugby for football to answer Portsmouth SOS

Although Paul Cremin’s Fratton Park presence is regarded as ‘temporary’, according to John Mousinho.

The highly-regarded Cremin spent five-and-a-half years with the financially-troubled rugby union club, who last month entered administration.

As a consequence of their failure to pay players and staff and being unable to secure a takeover, London Irish have been refused permission to play in any league next season.

It leaves the former rugby Premiership Rugby club in limbo – and prompted Cremin to seek employment in football through Pompey.

The Blues have been seeking to appoint a new medical team over the summer, following the surprising departures of long-serving trio Bobby Bacic, Jack Hughes and Jeff Lewis.

And last week Cremin arrived to join Tom Nation in temporarily filling the vacancies.

John Mousinho told The News: ‘We have two physios in the building at the moment and we are going to look at that long-term.

‘We have brought in Paul Cremin, who has come from a rugby background, and we still have Tom Nation working with us. They have been absolutely brilliant.

‘At the moment they are temporary, but that’s not to rule out they could come full-time.

‘They have been really good additions so far and getting a bit of work in with our injury situation at present.’

Cremin was present at Privett Park on Friday night and helped treat Josh Dockerill, who suffered a worrying knee injury early in the second half.

The Academy prospect eventually had to be stretchered to the dressing room and will now undergo a scan to uncover the full extent of the damage.

The former Cornish Pirates head physio was also present at Westleigh Park on Saturday for the Blues’ 1-0 win over the Hawks.

He joins Bournemouth-based Tom Nation, a former Southampton Academy and tennis physio who joined Pompey on their recent Spanish pre-season training camp in Mijas, Malaga.

Mousinho’s squad has been impacted by injury early into summer, although most of the match absentees are regarded as precautionary and have continued to train.

They include Colby Bishop, Christian Saydee, Conor Shaunghnessy, Denver Hume, Tom Lowery, Joe Rafferty, Kusini Yengi and, of course, Dockerill.

In addition, Gavin Whyte was ruled out last week through illness, although has since returned to training.