Portsmouth boss rubbishes claims of unhappy Huddersfield loanee after second-half substitution against Fleetwood

The Huddersfield loanee was the Blues’ brightest spark in a difficult afternoon at Fratton Park, which saw them lose further points in their promotion chase.

The 23-year-old scored his fourth goal in six games since his arrival from the John Smith’s Stadium on deadline day, after netting a wonderful curling effort from outside the box to open the scoring after seven minutes.

Although the majority of Pompey’s attacking threat came from the left-hand side, the winger was drafted off in place of Ronan Curtis on 75 minutes as Cowley tried all attempts to unlock the resilient Fleetwood backline.

After initially looking confused at the Blues boss’ decision, Koroma headed straight down the tunnel instead of joining his team in the dugout.

This prompted a number of questions as to whether there are any issues with the winger and why he didn’t join his team-mates on the sidelines.

However, Cowley has since dismissed any claims that the former Lincoln man was unhappy with the decision, instead insisting a stomach issue was the main cause of his surprise substitution.

‘I thought Josh was good.’ He told The News.

‘He’s fine, he just had a stomach issue but I think it is low level. Without being too graphic it was a stomach issue.

‘Once he came back out into the dugout he was fine.’