Portsmouth boss John Mousinho provides update on duo forced off against Oxford United

John Mouinsho has provided updates on Joe Morrell and Terry Devlin following their early withdrawals from Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw with Oxford United.

Midfielder Morrell was substituted on 34 minutes at the Kassam Stadium after suffering an injury to his left knee. Meanwhile Devlin was forced off just after the hour mark with a shoulder problem he picked up in an aerial challenge with U’s player Greg Leigh in the first half.

Pompey will await the results of a scan on Thursday before learning the full extent of the injury suffered by Morrell, with head coach Mousinho hopeful the issue isn’t too serious. As for Devlin, the Irishman was supposedly in a lot of pain - despite playing on as Pompey looked to stretch their lead at the top of League One. The Blues boss confirmed no serious damage was inflicted, though, as he ruled out a long-term absence.

Speaking to The News on Wednesday, Mousinho said. 'Joe's okay. He's going for a scan tomorrow. He's still doing all the precautions and keeping the weight of his left knee but we don't know at this stage what it is.

'Fingers crossed it's not too bad. We're hopeful that it's not something serious but you never know with knees. We'll see what the scan says and report back Friday or Saturday.

‘Terry has taken a bit of a knock to his shoulder. There's no dislocation, no break, no ligament damage. It's just in that challenge he landed on it really awkwardly. 

‘He was in a lot of pain last night and got through it for the team which is great but it came to the point in the second half that it was the right thing to take him off and protect him. With Terry, you have to protect him from himself because he would have played the 90 minutes and we would have had to drag him off the pitch.

'We'll assess how it is in a couple of days but it's nothing long term.’

Midifielder Devlin featured at right-back for the Blues at Oxford as he continued to fill in for Joe Rafferty, who has missed the past three games with a neck injury. However, the Scouser has returned to training and is in contention to start Saturday's game against Northampton.