Portsmouth eye potential replacement for Manchester City starlet and reported Everton target as injury wait goes on

Pompey have pledged to sign a replacement for Alex Robertson should his absence last a ‘significant’ period of time.

The Blues are still awaiting results of a scan carried out by Manchester City to determine the extent of the Australian’s hamstring injury, which was sustained in training last Thursday.

Rich Hughes insists a contingency plan already exists, having been drawn up in case the talented 20-year-old was recalled by his parent club in January.

Over the next 48 hours, Pompey expect to learn how long they will be without the influential Robertson.

Yet their sporting director is prepared to delve into the transfer market for a new attacking midfielder should the news be a worst-case scenario.

Hughes told The News: ‘With Alex being a loan player, he is having a scan completed by Manchester City. We are waiting for their reports, but are anticipating it is going to be a period out of the team.

‘We know it’s going to be a significant injury, we’re just not sure what time frame yet. As soon as Manchester City communicate that, we will be in a position to know exactly where we are.

‘Once we know exactly what we are dealing with, we can assess it more thoroughly. We plan for the worst and are hoping for the best, but if Alex is out for a significant period of time we will look to bring in players to help keep us strong and keep us moving forward.

‘We plan for contingencies. With Alex, we were never given any inclination that Manchester City were going to recall him, given how he had settled and how he was doing.

‘However, we must always plan for the worst and hope for the best. We wanted to keep Alex, but we’ve been working on a scenario that, if he did go, then we’d have names and options underneath that to try to keep the momentum to keep us strong.

‘It is tough, he’s a really talented footballer, a wonderful young man as well, so it would be difficult to replace him, but that’s our job as a football club.

‘We work on contingencies, we look for options, and it might give us a bit of a chance to bring someone in with a slightly different skill set.’

As it stands, Pompey are loath to second guess the forthcoming scan results on Robertson.

And, as with John Mousinho on Saturday, Hughes will not be predicting the time frame for the hamstring injury.

He added: ‘We are hoping to hear from Manchester City over the next couple of days.

‘I don’t want to make a prediction on how long he could be out because, until we get the details of the scan, it’s hard to do that.

‘Alex will be out of the team for a period of time. I don’t know how long that will be yet and that’s not me being non-committal. I am no medical expert and I don’t want to make a prediction until the experts tell me where it sits.’