Portsmouth boss John Mousinho outlines plan for forgotten Sunderland defender

And the head coach insisted the forgotten defender is not just pigeonholed into his natural left-back position.

Game time has come at a premium for the former Sunderland man following the 36-year-old’s arrival in the Blues hot seat in January.

Indeed, Hume has amounted just 15 minutes of first-team football under his new boss and has appeared in just three of Mousinho’s 11 games in charge.

Yet, with Connor Ogilvie solidifying his place as Pompey’s regular left-back, it has significantly impacted the 24-year-old’s action.

But, during the Blues’ 3-1 victory over Bolton last week, the defender played the final six minutes at right-wing - coming on in place of Owen Dale.

And a more attacking role for Hume is something Mousinho is keen to deploy.

‘Really tough,’ the head replied when asked about the difficulties the left-back has faced in recent weeks.

‘There’s been a couple of factors with Denver.

The first one is the fact that we’ve changed shape so we’ve gone to a back four rather than having wing-backs - maybe Denver is really well suited to that left-wing back position.

‘The second one is Connor’s (Ogilvie) form. Through no fault of Denver’s fault, Connor has been excellent in the games that I’ve been here.

‘I do feel for Denver. He trains really well every day, he’s a really good kid, I think he’s an excellent player.

‘I watched him extensively when he was at Sunderland and I think he’s just been very, very unlucky.

‘I’ve played Denver further up the pitch so that’s definitely a possibility and definitely in my thought process.

‘At the minute, he’s obviously a left-back but I wouldn’t necessarily say he’s pigeonholed into that position.

‘He has got a bit of flexibility and very dangerous going forward and a good option to have.

‘One of the conversations I had in January was saying that I understand how frustrating it is not playing but hopefully there’ll be opportunities to play.

‘It’s to be ready for that and that’ll be a good chance for him to show what he’s about.’

Its not just Hume who has been out of the fray since Mousinho’s arrival, with Kieron Freeman yet to feature under the head coach.

However, the Blues boss explained the difficulties he’s facing trying to convince his forgotten men they do have a place in his squad.

He added: ‘There’s quite a few boys sitting there without a huge amount of minutes under their belts and they’re probably thinking this is difficult for me to get in the side.

‘I do like them. The hardest thing for me to convince them is that I really do like them, having not played them.

‘Hopefully they keep their heads down because people are going to be called upon, if there’s one thing we know this season is players are called upon when least expected.’