Duo hand Portsmouth important injury boost for League One run-in after Blackpool fears

John Mousinho has revealed Callum Lang is ‘50/50’ for Burton Albion’s visit to Fratton Park on Tuesday night.

The Blues boss also admitted Jack Sparkes - another player who picked up a knock at Blackpool on Saturday - will be fit to feature against the Brewers after being pictured leaving Bloomfield Road on crutches.

At the time, Mousinho said the left-back suffered a cut to his ankle following a challenge by Jordan Gabriel. Yet he’ll be able to continue deputising for Connor Ogivlie, who remains out with an ankle injury he picked up against Oxford.

Lang’s potential participation against Burton will come as a surprise, though, as he had to leave the pitch shortly after the tackle made by Blackpool captain Ollie Norburn. It was a challenge that infuriated Mousinho. But speaking to The News on Monday, he admitted the damage suffered by the former Wigan man might not require him to sit out an important game in Pompey’s pursuit of the League One title.

The initial fear was a six-week injury lay-off, but a return against either the Brewers or Saturday’s trip to Peterborough is on the cards.

Revealing the latest on the forward, Mousinho said: ‘Callum isn’t as bad as we initially thought. We were pretty fearful after the game because of the mechanism of the tackle, because we’ve seen that a couple of times previously this season with Kusini (Yengi), who did it at the training ground and then Marlon (Pack) who injured himself at Wigan under a heavy challenge.

‘So we were slightly concerned about that, but Callum’s reported in yesterday and today without crutches, without a boot, he can put weight through the ankle, he’s fine and it’s a lot more mobile than what we thought it would be. He’s about 50/50 for tomorrow night, and if not tomorrow night, then we’ll see him at the weekend.

‘We’ll send him for a precautionary scan today and then see how it settles down tomorrow. Something could always show up on that but we’re pretty hopeful.’

Mousinho said an image of Sparkes leaving Bloomfield Road with his ankle heavily bandaged up and using crutches ‘was a lot more dramatic than it actually was’. He said there were no concerns over the former Exeter man’s participation against Burton at Fratton Park.

‘If you saw the impact, there was a lot of blood at the time,’ said Mousinho. ‘But it was something we sorted really quickly with the doctor. We didn’t know what the effect would be, because of the impact of the challenge, we didn’t know if he had twisted his ankle or not, so it was very, very precautionary in terms of what we wanted to do. He’s absolutely fine today and is okay for selection tomorrow.’