A Portsmouth absentee for good reason: Why reported £2m Preston target Callum Lang didn't face Crawley
The former Wigan man has been a revelation since arriving at Fratton Park in January 2024
Callum Lang’s Crawley absence had been foreshadowed long before morning reports warning of unwanted transfer interest.
Certainly it would have been more of a surprise had the attacker been present, whether at the rain-saturated Broadfield Stadium or behind-closed-doors in Hilsea.
‘We are probably just going to be a bit cautious with Colby, but Callum trained fully with the side. He also trained this morning with a smaller group, which included Colby. It’s just the contact side with Colby because he has taken a knock to his ankle.
‘The pair of them probably won’t play against Crawley, but definitely Reading.’
Just under four days later, Bishop was participating in his first friendly of the summer, lining up against Crawley on Saturday afternoon.
Yet there was no sign of Lang, as anticipated by Mousinho. Hamstrings are notoriously more difficult to rehabilitate from than badly bruised ankles.
Coincided with Preston bid claims
Of course, the timing of his latest exclusion unhelpfully coincided with Football League World claims hours earlier in the day that Pompey had rejected a £2m bid for the services of the former Wigan man.
Nonetheless, Lang really has been injured. He and Bishop spent every session at the Slovakian training camp rehabbing together, working away from the rest of the squad, through sunshine and, mostly, rain.
Indeed, those 50 members of the Fratton faithful present to witness the penultimate training session of the trip will happily testify Lang was unable to train with his team-mates, although cheerily signed autographs and posed for photos.
His latest hamstring issue had occurred days before departing for the X-Bionic Sphere in Samorin. Thankfully not a repeat of the grade 3C tear sustained at Oxford United in February which should have been season-ending, more a slight strain.
Speaking during the trip, Lang told The News: ‘The hamstring is fine, it’s about managing it. It’s a big part of my game, the energy that I bring, it’s just managing it.
‘After you’ve done your hamstring, the possibility of getting reinjured is always a lot higher, but I trust myself that I’m doing the work in the gym and working as hard as I can to do everything to make sure it’s in the right place.’
Essential to ease Lang back into match action
Still, Pompey’s need to tread delicately over Lang’s latest comeback saw him reintroduced into training the Monday following their return to England - yet subsequently left out against Woking and Farnborough. And now Crawley.
The need to gently ease him back into match action is obvious, common sense even, particularly such a key performer. As Adil Aouchiche emphatically demonstrated, Callum Lang is irreplaceable.
On Saturday, the 26-year-old wasn’t present on the sidelines to cheer on his team-mates in a fixture which had been switched to Pompey’s training ground at the last minute after Crawley had called it off at 11.35am.
Then again, none of the injured players were, among them Ibane Bowat, Tom McIntyre and Harvey Blair. Certainly nothing untoward there, Pompey were meant to be in a different county, after all.
Incidentally, before the match, Mousinho had declared he wouldn’t be conducting press interviews afterwards on account of it now being downgraded to a training ground match, although The News were invited in to watch.
He would, of course, have performed such duties had the original fixture stood. As a consequence, there was no opportunity to question him on those Preston rumours or the reason behind Lang’s absence against the League Two side.
Then again, the popular Scouser was never going to play anyway. Not yet. Not after another hamstring injury scare, especially with another three friendlies still available.
We had been warned, though. Pompey’s head coach told us that would be the case four days earlier.
Your Next Pompey Read: Pompey man targeted by League Two club for transfer window switch