Pompey dealt early-season injury blow as Marlon Pack set to have knee surgery
Confirmed - Pompey skipper set to miss opening weeks of season due to knee injury
Marlon Pack is expected to miss the next six weeks of Pompey’s season.
The club captain, who picked up a knee injury in the Blues’ behind-closed-doors pre-season friendly win against Brighton last month, is set to undergo surgery to fix the issue.
Tuesday has been set aside for the 34-year-old to go under the knife, after the Blues received the results of a scan over the weekend.
Blues boss John Mousinho has admitted the injury is better than first feared. Yet it means the midfielder having to sit out at least six games - including next month’s south coast derby against Southampton, which will be played at St Mary’s on September 14.
Pack - who travelled with the rest of the first-team group to Oxford United on Saturday - sat out Pompey’s opening game of the season win against the U’s with what was initially described as a ‘swollen knee’.
In his absence, Andre Dozzell and summer arrival John Swift got the nod to start in midfield over fellow newbies Mark Kosznovszky and Luke Le Roux, who remained on the bench for the 1-0 win at the Kassam Stadium.
John Mousinho provides latest on Marlon Pack injury
Speaking ahead of Tuesday night’s Carabao Cup first-round game against Reading, head coach Mousinho said Pack was coping well with the news that he faced a month and a half on the sidelines.
He said: ‘Marlon is booked in for surgery tomorrow.
‘It’s not major surgery, so, thankfully, we’re not talking ACL or anything serious like that.
‘We’re hoping it’s going to be six weeks that he’s back, so that is better than we perhaps feared initially.
‘So Marlon’s okay, he’s old enough to grasp the realities of what happens when you get injured.
‘When we knew he was injured on Friday, we didn’t have the scan results but we knew he was injured on Friday, and it was never any doubt that he wasn’t going to be travelling with us to Oxford. He was a bit part of the win at the weekend.’
Marlon Pack ‘is massively influential’
With Pompey’s midfield having a major reshuffle over the summer, competition for places this season will be intense.
As well as Pack, Swift, Kosznovszky and Le Roux, the Blues also boast the presence of Terry Devlin. Meanwhile, full-back Zak Swanson was asked to play there on Saturday when he replaced Swift in the second half - a duty he was asked to take up during Pompey’s recent pre-season programme.
With that in mind, Pack - who has a year remaining on his contract - isn’t expected to be a regular starter this term as the Blues look to build on last season’s 16th-placed Championship finished.
However, Mousinho has insisted the former Cardiff man remains an integral part of his plans.
Speaking on Saturday, he said: ‘ If Marlon was fit, he would 100 per cent would have been in the squad against Oxford, if not the starting XI.
‘He was okay last week, it was a strange one. He trained after the PEC Zwolle game on the pitch, we trained Monday and Tuesday. He felt it slightly on Wednesday and, on Friday in training, he said it was a little too much.
‘But we will see. Marlon could have stayed at home on Friday, but there was no chance that was happening, he was here with the squad and is massively influential, a big part of the club.
‘He was also there at Oxford, sitting just to the right of the bench.’
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