'Doesn't look great...' - Pompey assessing new injury scare as another worry emerges

Lane had to be helped off the pitch at half-time in the 3-0 defeat at Ewood Park. He didn't appear for the second period and was replaced by Isaac Hayden who made his debut after joining from Newcastle United on Friday.

In his post-match press conference, Mous revealed that the winger had to leave the stadium on crutches. Lane will now be assessed by the medical staff with the boss unwilling to commit to anything, but the feeling is that it doesn’t ‘look great’.

‘There’s no update from our point of view,” said Mousinho in his pre-match press conference.

‘Paddy isn’t in yet. But, it doesn’t look great. We’ve watched the footage back, he’s gone down without any contact. He’s left the stadium on crutches. We don’t know, and we don’t want to speculate anything but it doesn’t look great.’

Pompey have had their fair share of injury problems this season, and given how busy a month January has proven to be, they can ill-afford to lose anyone else. With a home match against Middlesbrough to come on Saturday, the turnaround is short, and the players have come in for training on Thursday.

As they wait for the full extent of Lane's injury, there is also a slight concern for Christian Saydee. He came on as a substitute for Andre Dozzell with less than half an hour to go, but was on the receiving end of a tough tackle in the latter stages of the match.

‘I think we had Colby was suffering just at the back end of the game,” responded Mousinho when asked if there were any injury problems arose from Blackburn.

‘He’s fine, I’ve seen him this morning and there is no issue there.

‘Christian (Saydee) took a whack in a challenge with Dion Sanderson so we will assess him this morning but apart from that everything is fine.’

Jordan Archer was missing from the match day squad on Wednesday night. He went off with a quad injury in the defeat to Wycombe Wanderers on Friday night. His injury isn't serious, and he's expected to come back in to contention in the next few days.

Asked for an update on Archer, the boss said: ‘He’s actually okay. It’s just a minor grade one A. I suspect Jordan will be back over the next couple of days.