Portsmouth reeling from Keshi Anderson blow as ex-Birmingham man suffers fresh set-back
The former Birmingham City man has featured just seven times, scoring once, since his January arrival at Fratton Park
Keshi Anderson’s fitful Pompey career has suffered yet another set-back.
Although John Mousinho anticipates long-term victims Zak Swanson, Josh Murphy and Ebou Adams will finally return to full training next week.
The Blues are awaiting the results of a scan on a quad problem picked up by Anderson during their training camp in Fota Island last week.
The former Birmingham man has been restricted to just seven appearances since joining in January, after previously being sidelined by hamstring injuries.
Anderson was among 12 players absent through injury Aldershot tonight, with Marlon Pack now joining Connor Ogilvie in needing surgery during pre-season - and the Blues are waiting to learn the full extent of his new set-back.
‘A few of those are due to return to full training next week’
Mousinho told The News: ‘The amount injured is not a concern yet. I will be more concerned if we have that number absent close to the West Ham game.
‘In pre-season, with the amount of work we did last week, we're going to pick up some niggles and a couple of aches and strains here and there. We are just monitoring that as the season goes on.
‘With Keshi, he felt something on Friday in training, so we’re waiting for the scan result on his quad.
‘We also have some long-term injuries that we’ve been missing and a few of those are due to return to full training next week. We won’t see any of them this weekend, the likes of Swanny, Murph and Ebou, but they should be returning to next week. Then we’ll look to introduce them into the Wycombe game (July 25).
‘Ebou is a hangover from that knee injury he picked up at QPR. He came back as quickly as he possibly could, then went away with the Gambia and aggravated that injury. Murph is obviously one from last season, Swanny’s one from last season too.
‘Connor Ogilvie is having a tidy up in his knee, so he should be back five weeks today. That would be six weeks altogether post surgery, which he had last Tuesday.
‘There’s a bit that’s going on from last season, but we’re making sure we use the six weeks we’ve got until the first game of the season to immerse those players back in.’
Also missing at present are Josef Bursik (quad), Mark Kosznovszky (knee), Jacob Farrell (groin), Tayo Singerr (hamstring), Terry Devlin and Franco Umeh.
‘We are just being cautious with Franco’
He added: ‘Franco trained on Tuesday, we are just being cautious with him. He’s had a lot of training load over the past couple of weeks.
‘It’s the most he has trained in his entire career, we need to keep him consistent and we need to keep him fit. I expect he will be at Bristol Rovers on Saturday.
‘Although Tayo is still about four weeks away with the hamstring injury he picked up at Gosport at the back end of the season.’
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