John Mousinho pinpoints the toughest decision among Portsmouth's 13 out-of-contract players

For the head coach is adamant the issue of Jayden Reid isn’t as ‘straightforward’ as some may believe.

The unlucky winger has never played a competitive match during two injury-wrecked seasons at Fratton Park.

The former Birmingham and Manchester United player has suffered two knee ligament injuries and a long-term hamstring problem since arriving in July 2021.

Now aged 22, Reid’s Pompey deal expires at the season’s end – and represents a player Mousinho has never seen train, let alone play.

As a consequence, Pompey’s head coach believes it leaves him with a ‘tricky’ decision.

Mousinho told Then News: ‘Jayden is doing really well, although is still a couple of months away from full fitness, so we’re probably looking at pre-season before he’s in full training.

‘We haven’t actually discussed his contract yet. With all current players in the building, we haven’t really looked at what the contracts look like for beyond this year.

‘With Jayden, we’ll be going on the reasons why we signed him in the first place and whether we think he’s going to get back to those heights.

‘The other ones will hopefully be a bit more straightforward, even though contract decisions are never as straightforward as you think because a load of factors come into it.

‘But Jayden’s one will be very, very tricky, probably the toughest decision, on account of we haven't seen him on the pitch.

‘Credit to him because he’s coming back and working hard at his programme, but it’s going to be an interesting conversation for us because we just don’t know what we’re going off.

‘He’s had to battle back hard from back-to-back ACLs from season-to-season and that’s a really difficult thing, so I haven’t seen enough.

‘I’ve seen a very small glimpse of footage of him when on loan in League Two (Barrow), but even then there’s not a huge amount to go off.

‘He’s a promising young footballer who is obviously disappointed with the injuries, but remains a bright, young lad to have around the place. However, he’s not played a minute since I’ve been here and that’s really tough.

‘Quite possibly I want to see him in training first, I don’t know. Maybe that’s the case, we want to see first before we make a decision.’

Connor Ogilvie, Jay Mingi, Clark Robertson, Louis Thompson and Ryan Tunnicliffe are also among the 13 players whose contracts are nearing an end.

In the meantime, Reid continues to make encouraging progress from his latest injury blow.

Mousinho added: ‘Jayden’s striking balls and moving pretty well out there, it’s just a long, long slow rehab for those ACL injuries.

‘For the first part of ACL rehab, you won’t touch a football for six weeks, then you start getting into some close control and moving the ball.

‘Then, by the time you feel a bit more comfortable, you can start striking the ball over a longer distance, so he’s getting towards that stage.

‘But it’s still a long, long way to go.’