LATEST: Fitness picture over Pompey midfielder Tom Lowery detailed after Derby County concerns

And ensuring the midfielder can hit the ground running next term was in the Pompey boss’ thinking as he sat out Saturday’s draw at Derby County.

Lowery dropped to the bench at Pride Park in the 1-1 draw, after gaining momentum following his injury struggles with five starts out of six.

The 25-year-old picked up a slight glute problem in training last week, after a campaign in which he’s been restricted to 20 appearances after an awkward hamstring issue.

Mousinho wasn’t overly concerned about the issue, but was conscious of how frustrating the season has been for the summer arrival from Crewe.

The Pompey head coach felt the sensible approach was to have Lowery as an option from the bench, but also have one eye on the man many hope can have a big impact moving forward being ready to hit the ground running in pre-season.

Mousinho said: ‘Tom picked up a knock in training on Thursday and it was a muscular one.

‘His glute just tightened up a little bit and what we didn’t want was Tom Lowery injured over the summer. That would really dent his pre-season.

‘So it was an important one in the circumstances with the fact Tom has already had so many injuries this season, so we really wanted to protect him.

‘We knew he would be okay for 20-25 minutes, hence he was on the bench.

‘Asking him to do any more than that in the heat and atmosphere of Derby just didn’t seem like it was worth the risk.’