Injury update over Portsmouth midfielder amid ex-West Ham United and Charlton Athletic man's struggles

But the Pompey boss has vowed to get to the bottom of the issue which is continuing to hinder the midfielder.

Mingi is batting an unusual issue called compartment syndrome, which is restricting blood flow to his shins and causing swelling.

It’s a problem the 21-year-old has battled on and off for a number of years and has attempted to manage.

It’s not entirely clear what is the trigger for the bouts of pain which are impacting Mingi, who has been making decent progress in his second season at Fratton Park.

The former West Ham and Charlton man has been soldering on with the issue, and got a start under hls belt against Aston Villa under-21s in the Papa John’s Trophy last weekend.

Mingi also featured off the bench against Fleetwood on Saturday, but felt the problem come on before the defeat at Ipswich Town and was an unused sub at Portman Road;

Cowley said: ‘Jay’s injury is a little bit different.

‘It’s called compartment syndrome, it’s very sporadic and comes on and off.

‘He’d had a really good training week (before Ipswich) and we thought we were on top of it.

‘But then come matchday in the warm-up it was really painful.

‘It’s a bit inhibiting for him.’

The challenge for Pompey and their medical team now is to explore ways in which they can restrict the onset of the bouts of pain for Mingi.

Cowley explained there’s a number of different options available to the Blues, and they will take every step to help the Londoner manage the issue.

He said: ‘It does seem to be settling which is good, but we’re going to need to do some more testing on it.

‘That will be able to give us a better understanding of the injury, then that will allow us to put a process in place.

‘Whether that’s orthotics, tissue work or a combination of both we’ll see, but we have to find a solution so he’s able to train more freely and then be available for selection.’