Portsmouth boss delivers Colby Bishop update after latest friendly absence

The popular striker and his wife Annabel welcomed their first child Camilla into the world last Tuesday.

During the pregnancy, Bishop missed the Croatian training camp to be close to his wife, yet has continued to work on his fitness.

So far, he has been unavailable for all four of the Blues’ pre-season friendlies, including Saturday’s dismal 4-0 defeat to Wycombe in a 120-minute fixture played behind closed doors.

Bishop, who instead trained at their Hilsea base on Saturday, has also been ruled out of Tuesday’s trip to MK Dons by Mousinho.

But he could be ready for match action in the final pre-season friendly at Charlton on August 3.

Mousinho told The News: ‘It’s a good question when he’ll be back. Colby missed the Croatia trip and it has been an interesting couple of weeks waiting for the child to be born, which we have all seen.

‘Thankfully we have a nice healthy young girl and it’s a big step for Colby in terms of fatherhood, as any parent knows.

‘That has taken a chunk out of the training he has been able to do and MK Dons (Tuesday) may be a step too far, but obviously as we get closer to the season we’d like to ramp that one up.

‘Now we are looking at a much better situation than this time last week with Colby’s child being born and Saturday (Charlton) is a possibility.

‘He’s still training and is bright and buzzy around the place, which is the most important thing. It’s just that the timing wasn’t great.’

Another missing from the Wycombe defeat was Anthony Scully, who has been troubled by a stomach bug since the end of the previous week.

However, he has now returned to training, and, although he wasn’t among the 22 players used in Saturday’s fixture, instead worked on his fitness while the game was in progress.

Mousinho added: ‘It has been a tough week for Anthony in terms of the illness, but he is over it now and is absolutely fine.’