Portsmouth boss' plan for letting Newcastle United arrival loose ahead of Luton Town clash

The Blues boss believes it’s necessary to guard against the threat of injury to the Gosport lad, following his Fratton homecoming.

And with the arrival from Newcastle United going through a lack of playing time, Mousinho is conscious of managing his minutes at present.

Ritchie gave the Fratton faithful a big boost last week when he returned to PO4, with the move creating a buzz ahead of Pompey’s Championship return.

The former Bournemouth man was given just seven minutes of the bench in the 3-3 opening-day draw at promotion favourites Leeds, however, with a further 26-minute cameo coming against Millwall in the Carabao Cup.

That was after a lack of playing time at St James’ Park last season, with Ritchie largely given short outings off the bench by Eddie Howe.

At 34, however, the academy graduate remains in excellent physical condition - underlined by his training minutes leading the way with Newcastle’s Premier League squad last season.

Mousinho is conscious, however, of Ritchie match sharpness matching his conditioning before he is given greater exposure to Championship action.

The Pompey boss explained is also with a view to avoiding injury issues, with the intensity at which his team will need to operate at this season clearly apparent after the Leeds clash.

He said: ‘Matt wasn’t ready to start (against Millwall).

‘We’re looking at that in terms of the pre-season he’s had and even though he’s trained with Bournemouth’s under-21s he didn’t get any competitive minutes, in terms of friendlies or competitive games so to speak.

‘So the first minutes Matt’s had in quite a long time was at Leeds - and we need to build that up slowly.

‘Matt didn’t play a huge amount of football last year. He was never injured and trained really well, but he didn’t play a huge amount.

‘So we have to make sure that we are wary of that, don’t chuck him in for the sake of it and risk an injury.’