Joe Morrell World Cup call-up: How long will Portsmouth be without midfielder, is he fit and what's chances of ex-Luton Town, Bristol City and Lincoln City man featuring in Qatar?

When will Pompey lose the midfielder?

Morrell’s final outing will be the long trip to Morecambe this weekend, if he is available for Danny Cowley’s side.

Morrell will then link up with Rob Page’s squad who will be based at the Delta Hotels City Center in Doha’s West Bay.

The World Cup gets underway a week on Sunday as hosts Qatar meet Ecuador. Wales’ campaign starts on Monday when they meet USA at 7pm (GMT).

How long is he going to be missing for?

Well, pretty clearly, that depends on how well Wales do on football’s greatest stage.

Their second group game is against Iran on Friday, November 25 (10am GMT). Then it’s the big round in their final Group B fixture against England on Tuesday, November 29 (7pm GMT).

That period means Morrell will miss Derby’s visit on November 18, the Papa John’s Trophy second round week commencing November 21 and the FA Cup second round clash with MK Dons on November 26.

And what if they qualify?

Well Wales will need to finish in the top two to make it through to the round of 16 stage. That runs from December 3-6 and covers the trip to Wycombe on December 4.

The quarter-finals are from December 9-10 with Pompey’s trek to Accrington on December 10. The semis are December 13-14 with no Blues game over that period, and the final on December 18 with Danny Cowley’s men entertaining MK Dons in the league the day before.

If Wales were to go all the way Morrell would miss six games, assuming there is no FA Cup replay.

Is he fit?

It has been a bit stop-start for Morrell this season.

A hernia operation kept him out of the start of the season with his first appearances against Port Vale at the end of August, but his first start not arriving for Pompey until the 3-2 loss at Ipswich at the start of October.

Morrell came off in that game struggling with illness and his asthma condition. A back issue was then forwarded as the reason for Morrell staying on the bench against Forest Green and he wasn’t in the squad against Oxford United.

The 25-year-old had a runout against AFC Wimbledon in the Papa John’s Trophy, but was missing once more against Hereford through illness.

You’d think it’d probably take more than a bout of illness to keep him from being involved in the biggest football stage of them all and Wales’ first time at the finals since 1958, however.

How likely is he to be involved?

Rob Page has shown his faith in Morrell in his time at the helm for Wales. A total of 11 of his 30 caps have arrived since the former Bristol City, Luton and Lincoln man arrived at Fratton Park in August last year.

Morrell most recently started in the Nations League loss to Poland after coming off the bench against Belgium a few days’ earlier.

It seems there has been snobbery among elements of Wales support at times about having a League One player feature for their team.

That noise has been drowned out by some fine form for his county, particularly against Kevin De Bruyne and a Belgium side ranked number one in the world last November.

The praise for his displays has accelerated since then, and, with fitness concerns over Swansea’s Joe Allen, Morrell could yet emerge as a key player for the Dragons.