Pompey dealt injury blow as timeframe for Callum Lang recovery revealed
Pompey have learned how long Callum Lang is likely to be out after he picked up a hamstring injury against Norwich City
Pompey are expecting Callum Lang to be out for between 4-8 weeks.
Blues head coach John Mousinho has admitted the hamsting injury picked up by the forward in the second half of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat against Norwich City at Fratton Park is not as bad as initially feared.
Yet it could still force the 26-year-old to miss a sizeable chunk of Pompey’s Championship season, with the worst-case scenario the Blues potentially face seeing the former Wigan Athletic man remain sidelined until mid-October and after the second international break.
That could see the popular Fratton Park figure miss up to seven league games - including next month’s south coast derby against Southampton at St Mary’s (September 14) and even the trip to Leicester City on October 18.
John Mousinho’s latest update on Callum Lang
Providing the latest on Lang in the build-up to Saturday’s trip to West Brom, Mousinho said on Wednesday: ‘He's okay. Callum will be probably, at the optimistic end, about four to six weeks (out), at the pessimistic end, about six to eight weeks - so anywhere in between, I suppose, four to eight.
‘We're just waiting on a second opinion from another specialist, just to confirm what we think about the scan.
‘To be honest, it's not the end of the world in terms of bad news. When he first did the hamstring, or when he first picked up the injury, we thought he might be a bit worse because he was about three months on the sidelines last season, and we thought it was very, very similar.
‘So it's the same mechanism, it's not the same injury. It's still a bit of a blow, but it's better than we thought it would be. ‘
Pompey’s options amid Callum Lang injury blow
Lang missed more than two months of Pompey’s Championship run-in last season with a hamstring injury he sustained against Oxford United in February.
That saw him sit out 10 games and frustratingly watch on from the sidelines as the Blues secured their second-tier status with two games to spare.
After being linked with a £2m move to Preston North End in the summer, the Liverpudlian started both of Pompey’s first two games of the new league season on the right wing.
In his absence, alongside Harvey Blair’s long-standing hamstring injury and Matt Ritchie’s anticipated departure, Adrian Segečić, Florian Bianchini and Minhyeok Yang are expected battle it out to start down Pompey’s right flank for their forthcoming games.
However, the Blues do remain keen to add to their options in that position before the transfer window closes on September 1.