Portsmouth boss addresses Regan Poole injury scare in Norwich draw

And Pompey’s head coach believes the defender is ‘touch and go’ to make Friday’s trip to Derby.

The centre-half was forced off at half-time in Tuesday night’s goalless draw with Derby which lifted the Blues out of the Championship relegation zone.

According to Mousinho, Poole felt an issue with his right hamstring - the area which was last year used to repair the ACL damage to his left knee.

Although the decision to substitute the Wales international against the Canaries was precautionary rather than a necessity.

Mousinho told The News: ‘Regan’s okay, he felt tiredness in his hamstring, the same side where he’d had the hamstring graft this time last year when he did his ACL.

‘The ACL needed to be reconstructed with a hamstring tendon - and it was taken from the side that Regan felt on Tuesday night, so we need to be cautious.

‘It was his highest output this season on Saturday (against Bristol City) and then going again against Norwich in terms of the press.

‘We see a lot of the players at the front end of the pitch pressing high. What it takes for them to be able to do that is a huge amount of cover from the centre-halves particularly and Regan and Marlon have been doing that.

‘Regan wanted to go back out at half-time, but coming off was the advice we were taking and the way he was stretching.

‘The fact we have two very good centre-halves on the bench meant there was no way we were going to risk him.’

Poole sustained ACL damage in November 2023 during the FA Cup encounter at Chesterfield, putting him out of action for more than 10 months.

Since returning in September, he has featured in the Blues’ last 14 matches, starting 13 of them in a row.

He was replaced against Norwich by Tom McIntyre, who is now in the frame to take Poole’s starting spot at Derby should he be ruled out.

Mousinho added: ‘I don’t know about Derby. It’s not a bad injury which will keep Regan out for a while, but it’s probably touch and go for Friday.’