‘I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know!' - Exasperated Portsmouth boss Danny Cowley lets his Tom Lowery injury frustrations show after further frustrations at Morecambe

The Blues boss, who is clearly as irked by the midfielder’s ongoing battle with a hamstring complaint as the Fratton faithful, repeated ‘I don’t know’ three times in succession when asked by BBC Solent’s Andrew Moon what the situation was with the 24-year-old.

And he admitted, on two separated occasions, that Pompey’s ambitions for the season would not be met if recurring injuries keep happening.

Cowley emphasised the point by insisting ‘it’s killing us’.

Lowery was expected to feature at the Mazumu Stadium following his comeback appearance in the FA Cup win at Hereford last week.

His 29-minute outing as a second-half substitute at Edgar Street was his first since limping off against Plymouth on September 17.

But the midfielder was a no-show for the Morecambe game after picking up an injury ‘at the back end of the week’.

It’s unclear how long the former Crewe man will be out for after this latest setback.

But with Joe Morrell now set to head off for the World Cup with Wales, Cowley was clearly still reeling from the midfielder’s unavailability.

When the subject of Lowery was raised by Moon in his post-match interview, the Blues boss simply said: ‘I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know!

‘All I know, like I said, we just keep on getting recurring injuries, the same injuries, and it’s killing us.

‘And it’s going to stop us achieving what we want to achieve.’

Earlier in the interview, Cowley said the Blues tried to force the issue against Morecambe and return home with a win.

Yet, he referenced Pompey’s current injury concerns as a reason why a victory wasn’t attainable.

‘We did try to win it at the end, but by that time. we lost Zak (Swanson) to an injury, Marlon (Pack) obviously with fatigue – he’s done brilliantly to play – but it’s needs must at the moment,’ he said.

‘We keep getting injury after injury, and we keep on getting these recurring injuries, and they will stop us achieving what we want to achieve unless we resolve it.’