Injury set-back for unlucky Portsmouth man after low-key start to first-team bid

The promising midfielder last month linked-up with the Hawks on a season-long loan following an encouraging pre-season with Pompey.

Recruited from AFC Sudbury for an undisclosed fee in June, the 18-year-old joined the Blues’ Southern League Premier South neighbours for the opportunity of first-team football to bolster his development.

However, Swann has yet to start a match, instead featuring five successive times off the bench, and is presently sidelined by an unspecified injury.

As a consequence, he has missed the Hawks’ last three matches, with the Blues’ medical department overseeing his treatment.

Indeed, Swann hasn’t played since appearing off the bench for seven minutes in the August Bank Holiday Monday clash with AFC Totton, which finished 1-1.

The Hawks, under new head coach Shaun North, have been hit hard by injuries during the early part of the season, with the youngster yet another casualty.

Speaking about his team’s agonising injury list in general to the Hawks’ official website earlier this month following victory over Wallingford & Crowmarsh, boss Shaun North said: ‘We are just waiting for them to be fit, we just need them to be fit, and that’s an ongoing process, day-to-day, week-to-week.

‘At the moment they are not available for selection through injuries, as soon as they are, then they become available.’

Swann had started the Hawks’ season featuring off the bench in each of the opening five matches.

Yet after being introduced in the 60th minute of the first game against Dorchester in a 1-1 draw, his pitch minutes have declined.

The midfielder hasn’t been involved for more than 18 minutes in a fixture since, totalling 80 first-team minutes since arriving at the Hawks, and is now injured.

As a result of the Hawks’ ongoing injury issues, former Pompey pair Harvey Laidlaw and Mitch Aston have returned from Baffins Milton Rovers, where they are dual registered.

Laidlaw started Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Bracknell Town, North’s side’s fifth stalemate in eight games.

They are presently 11th in the table, with one win and no defeats, during a solid start to life back in Southern League Premier South following last season’s relegation.