Portsmouth boss' honest Colby Bishop admission - and an encouraging injury update

And the Blues’ head coach has also provided another encouraging update on the popular striker’s recovery.

Along with Tom Lowery and Ben Stevenson, Bishop was not registered in the squad list submitted to the Football League in the aftermath of the transfer window.

Having undergone heart surgery in August, the 27-year-old is currently on the road to recovery and now back working at the training ground.

Although Bishop will not be able to play competitively for the Blues until January 1, when squad lists can be resubmitted.

Mousinho told The News: ‘With Ben and Tom who missed out, we did try to find alternatives for them towards the back end of the window and unfortunately we couldn’t do that.

‘That was something which was apparent to both of those players, but they’re in the building, they are good players, we still rate them highly and still think we can keep them ticking over and find that right solution for them in January.

‘The other tricky one was Colby, but we don’t know the timescale on that in terms of his return. If he beats the odds and gets back quicker than we all think then absolutely great. We’ll see what that looks like when that happens.

‘It’s just one of those things at the moment. We need players at the moment who we can pick, who are ready and available. We can revisit Colby on January 1.

‘We are still not keen to put a timescale on his return, we don’t know, although Colby has been back a couple of weeks now and is making some really good progress.

‘He’s back on his feet, he is doing some light jogging, he’s training around the training pitches, but nothing in terms of anything which resembles anything close to training yet. So we still have a road to recovery.’

Pompey fans would have been delighted to see Bishop back at Fratton Park on Sunday and involved in Sky Sports’ match-day coverage of the West Brom clash.

However, the Blues suffered a 3-0 defeat as they continue to struggle to score at Fratton Park in his absence.

Mousinho also had Kusini Yengi (groin) and Mark O’Mahony (ankle) missing from their striking ranks for the Championship clash with the high-flying Baggies.