Fresh set-back for luckless ex-West Ham and Lincoln man as Portsmouth push comeback to pre-season

Luckless Anthony Scully has suffered yet another set-back in his long-running battle against injury.

And John Mousinho is now focussing on a pre-season return for the former West Ham attacker.

Scully suffered a knock in training a month ago and, despite initial expectations of returning within a week, he remains on the sidelines.

It’s yet another cruel blow for the 24-year-old, who has managed just nine appearances since arriving from Wigan for an undisclosed fee in June.

And while Mousinho isn’t ruling the winger out from the remaining four matches of their Championship push, he recognises the importance of instead targeting a summer comeback.

He told The News: ‘Anthony is not back in training yet. He still isn’t 100 per cent with his ankle and we are taking that one slowly.

‘It has obviously been a really frustrating season for him and probably the focus for us now is making sure he’s back fit and ready for pre-season - unless we really need him for the back end.

‘He picked up a knock in training (last month), it's one of those unfortunate ones. He has been riddled with bad luck and it just seems like it’s at a stage where we take a step back and say “Okay, let’s make sure everything is right” and not take any unnecessary risks.

‘In terms of where we are at the moment with players in the squad, we’re okay, so it’s a case of trying to take that mental and physical load off Anthony.

‘At the time of his latest injury, he was coming back into it. It had been a tough road of recovery for him, he’d had surgery, he returned and featured against Cheltenham, he was in and out of the squads. 

‘We were trying to get that sharpness back which obviously hasn’t happened because of the injury.

‘It has been a frustrating season for him, without a doubt, we all know his qualities, he’s scored a lot of goals at this level - and I am sure he’ll do it again once he’s back.’

Scully’s most recent first-team involvement was as an unused substitute in January’s 1-0 victory at Port Vale.

He previously missed four months of this season following a meniscus tear in his left knee, which required surgery in October.

Mousinho added: ‘I hark back to it all the time, the performance you saw against Crawley in pre-season where he was right at it, scored twice, involved in everything - that’s the Anthony Scully we know.

‘We’ll get him back there at some point, it’s just going to take time. We aren’t rushing it, for Anthony’s benefit more than anything.

‘Absolutely our focus will be to get him firing for next season.’