Ex-Bristol City and Luton man reveals he's playing through the pain at Portsmouth after Wales injury against Holland

The Pompey midfielder sustained the injury to the second toe on his right foot following a challenge by Atlanta’s Teun Koopmeiners.

The incident occurred during Wales’ Nations League encounter with Holland, forcing Morrell off after 59 minutes.

The 25-year-old returned for Pompey’s pre-season on Thursday last week, having been given an extra 10 days off.

He subsequently earned the green light to feature for 45 minutes against the Hawks and Gosport.

And while Morrell has also completed every training session since linking up with the Blues again, he can still feel his injury.

He told The News: ‘I get studded all the time, probably once a week, and you think “Ah, it’s all right” and just carry on with it.

‘But it was the back stud, Koopmeiners has gone over the ball and caught me. I was expecting to run it off, then got in at half-time and it was bleeding through the front of my boot and throbbing.

‘I tried to run it off at the start of the second half and had to come off.

‘I still don’t think it is fully healed, I can feel it a little. From where I have been guarding against it subconsciously, the bottom of my foot has also been hurting through walking differently.

‘It was only a bone right at the end of my toe. If it had been the whole toe and a clean break then it would have been a bit worse.

‘I could have played with an injection, which is a conversation we had, but credit to Wales, they were were quite long-sighted in the fact they didn’t want to do anything stupid and sent me back to pre-season.

‘I couldn’t wear trainers for a week afterwards because it was so sore.’

Morrell had started two of Wales’ opening three international fixtures this summer before his injury.

Now he’s back in full training with Pompey and eyeing featuring against Qatar SC at the Pinatar Arena Football Center on Saturday (3pm UK time).

He added: ‘I had a week off, then a week building up my fitness and getting prepared to come back in.

‘When I returned, I spoke to the gaffer and initially he said he didn’t need me for the two games.

‘But when you’re in and they’re trying to assess where I was at in terms of the rest of the group, they were happy with the level of my fitness – and I was ready to play Saturday and Sunday.

‘I’ve been involved in every session and there have been a lot of them! It has definitely been a tough pre-season.

‘But I’ve always had my best campaigns off the back of tough pre-seasons. Let’s just hope the same happens here.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

You can support our local team of expert Pompey writers by subscribing here for all the latest news from Fratton Park for 9p a day, thanks to our 30%-off transfer window deal.