Portsmouth boss lifts lid on Brighton loanee's surprise absence - and 'positive signs' over worrying Rob Atkinson injury

And he also believes there are ‘some positive signs’ over the extent of Rob Atkinson’s calf problem.

O’Mahony, who netted Pompey’s second in the 2-0 victory at Oxford United, wasn’t included in Pompey’s squad for Saturday’s QPR clash.

Instead Kusini Yengi and Harvey Blair were called up to the Blues’ 20-man squad, with Callum Lang also absent through his season-ending hamstring injury.

Mousinho afterwards revealed the Brighton loanee collected a groin issue in training on Friday, ruling him out of the 2-1 success which lifted them into 17th spot.

Although he insists Mahony’s injury is not ‘too bad’.

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘Mark just felt his groin slightly in training on Friday, I don’t think it’s too bad.

‘It’s not quite as bad as some of the others on initial assessment. Mark not being included against QPR wasn’t a precaution, because I don’t think he was ready to play.

‘It’s one where we’re just not ready to push him through it.’

Irrespective of a third straight win, Saturday was a frustrating day on the injury front, with the Blues losing three players.

In addition, Hayden Matthews soldiered on until the end of the 2-1 triumph with an ankle injury and left Fratton Park on crutches.

Atkinson came off in the 39th minute for Regan Poole following a calf problem, although Mousinho was afterwards unsure whether it was an aggravation of an old issue.

Then, on 61 minutes, Zak Swanson and Isaac Hayden were both substituted, albeit for precautionary reasons and are expected to be okay.

Certainly the Blues can ill afford to be without the influential Atkinson following the recent losses of Conor Shaughnessy and Lang.

Pompey will discover the full extent of the Bristol City loanee’s injury over the weekend - and Mousinho was looking on the bright side.

He added: ‘It’s one of those where Rob didn’t go down and need treatment straight away, so there’s some positive signs there. But you don’t know with some of these.

‘We’ve had a couple of muscular injuries and one which springs to mind was Jordan Williams at Plymouth. He didn’t go down, but just felt his hamstring a bit and ended up being out for 6-8 weeks.

‘I hope it’s not as bad as that for Rob. We don't know, we’ll see how it settles down this weekend and we’ll go from there.

‘He’s as frustrated as us that it happened on Saturday of all days - and not one of those where we’re asking him to play Saturday and Tuesday.’