Portsmouth hoping for huge Harvey Blair boost after ex-Liverpool man's horror injury

Pompey are hoping Harvey Blair’s visit to a specialist will mark another important hurdle cleared in his injury comeback.

Although John Mousinho admits the winger still ‘isn’t close’ to making his first-team return.

The former Liverpool youngster is this week hoping for the green light to step up his rehabilitation from the torn hamstring sustained in the final match of last season.

The tendon was almost torn off the bone, such was the severity of injury caused by the first-half tackle from Hull’s Sean McLoughlin in the May fixture.

Pompey have subsequently been satisfied with Blair’s progress to date, with Mousinho insisting they are ‘much happier’ with the situation than 6-8 weeks ago.

Now the Blues are hoping to get the go ahead from a specialist to move to the next stage of the 21-year-old’s rehabilitation.

Portsmouth boss: We haven’t actually put a timescale on his return

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘Harvey is doing okay, he is going to see a specialist this week, so, once the specialist has had a good check over to see how he is, we’re either going to get the green light to really crack on or we might have to do a bit more strengthening work in the gym.

‘So he’s not out on the grass yet, but it’s very, very close to hopefully us getting the green light and then going ahead to really push him.

‘You need to tick off a couple of boxes by the time you get to this stage, so seeing the specialist is just to make sure there’s no risk in actual re-injury by increasing the level of rehab and getting him out there and sprinting.

‘Harvey isn’t close, he’s not close at all, but we are much happier with him in terms of where we are now. Obviously then where we were 6-8 weeks ago.

‘We haven’t actually put a timescale on his return. When he first did the injury, we were hopeful maybe he’d be back before the international break (September), but it’s definitely not going to be the case.

‘We are not rushing him so we want to get it right. It’s not one that drags on for months and months, but it’s also not going to be in the next couple of weeks.’

Untimely injury amid first-team run

At the time of his injury, Blair had been handed successive starts in the final two matches of the campaign as Pompey assessed whether he was ready for more first-team involvement.

The right winger scored in April’s 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday after being selected ahead of Matt Ritchie, then retained his place in the season finale against Hull.

However, McLoughlin’s tackle, which earned the defender a booking, forced Blair off in the 16th minute as he ended his maiden Fratton Park campaign with 12 appearances and one goal.

Three-and-a-half month injury absence for Portsmouth man

It’s an absence which has passed three-and-a-half months so far, including ruling Blair out of Pompey’s entire pre-season programme.

Mousinho added: ‘It will be a long one for Harvey, he hasn’t had that base of 6-7 weeks worth of pre-season, so we will have to get that into him as well.

‘But he’ll be back this calendar year.’

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