‘No doubt in my mind…’: Portsmouth boss’ massive Regan Poole claim ahead of Preston North End

But the Blues boss believes the defender will need time to get back to his best, as he builds his return from a 10-month injury lay-off.

Poole’s form has been under the spotlight after some tumultuous form of late, after coming back into the first-team fray following a serious knee injury.

The 26-year-old tainted an otherwise strong performance at Plymouth on Tuesday night, as he was muscled off the ball by Michael Obafemi in the game’s decisive moment eight minutes from time.

Poole was outstanding in his first start since injuring his anterior cruciate ligament at Chesterfield last November after a flying start to his Pompey career, producing a man-of-the-match display at Burnley in September.

The central defender’s form has been variable since with some difficult moments apparent, after  a lengthy lay-off. Mousinho pointed to his own experiences after suffering a similar injury to Poole, and feels a 12-week timeframe from his return to training is needed before he’s fully up and running again.

He said: ‘I think it’s been up and down and Regan, by his own admission, knows there’s plenty more to come.

‘Having done it myself, coming back from an ACL tear is really difficult. You think you’re okay and then, all of sudden three months later, you realise you were running on fumes and not quite at it.

‘I’ve always said that I look at that 12-week mark coming back from an injury as serious as that, as a really good time to hit your straps fully.

‘He came back against Burnley and was brilliant. He’s had some good performances since and performances where he’s been disappointed.

‘He was good for 99 per cent of the Plymouth game, but knows he has to be a bit stronger in that moment (for the goal).

‘I think post-international break in two weeks when we get back and play Blackburn, by that point we can expect Regan to be properly back at it.

‘Regan will get there, there’s no doubt in my mind he’ll get there and beyond the levels he performed last year. I’m really confident about that.’

Mousinho also highlighted how Pompey have been heavily reliant on Poole since he came back into the team, with Conor Shaughnessy injured.

The former Lincoln man has rattled off nine starts on the spin without any breathing space, which the Pompey boss seeing that scenario as far from ideal.

Mousinho added: ‘The other thing we’ve not been able to do is take him out of the side at all.

‘He’s just not had that luxury. There’s times, when being fair to him, coming back from a physical standpoint we would’ve taken him out of the side, but as it stands at the minute we don’t have another right-sided centre-half.’