Portsmouth boss John Mousinho allays injury fears after Brentford loanee forced off in stunning debut
The 20-year-old feature 44 times for Rangers last season, including outings in the Champions League play-offs
John Mousinho has allayed injury fears over Jayden Meghoma after the loan star was forced off against Cardiff.
A sparkling debut from the Brentford full-back ended prematurely when he was substituted on 65 minutes, having signalled to the bench.
He was replaced by Zak Swanson as the Blues ran out 2-0 winners through goals from Conor Shaughnessy and Marko Milovanovic.
Despite his early exit, Meghoma was the Blues’ man of the match, impressing the Fratton faithful with his marauding runs down the left wing in an encouraging fledgling partnership with Tyrese Shade.
And Mousinho insists it was cramp which prompted the 20-year-old to leave the action rather than the possibility of injury.
‘He hasn’t had a huge amount of exposure in pre-season’
Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘Jayden was excellent, he showed some really good glimpses in the first half of how he can drive away from players and what he gives you in the final third.
‘I think the temptation is to say he’s an attacking full-back, but he is very, very good defensively as well in the 1v1. He gives you that energy and he gives you that pace going forward, which is something we wanted to add to the group.
‘He cramped up towards the back end, the same with Tyrese. They haven't had a huge amount of exposure in pre-season.
‘Tyrese played 28 minutes against Notts County last weekend, which is his only game before Saturday. While Cardiff was Jayden's first senior football this season, even though he played a lot last year.
‘It was just cramp with Jayden, nothing to do with injury, he was signalling across. The same with Tyrese, he was struggling.
‘We had that real nice balance of Jayden and Swanny coming on and obviously Terry on the other side. We've got Connor coming back as well, so it’s a pretty good unit of four for that full-back area.’
Champions League football with Rangers
Meghoma featured 44 times for Rangers last season, including starts in the Champions League play-offs and Europa League.
The former Southampton Academy graduate also featured 14 times for Preston in the second half of the 2024-25 Championship season, when he started in a 2-1 win over Pompey.
However, Saturday represented his first competitive outing since a 2-1 defeat for Rangers against Hibernian in May.
Meanwhile, Mousinho also had to substitute Marlon Pack and Milovanovic against the Bluebirds to save them following a gruelling schedule.
He added: ‘We kept Marlon on as long as we possibly could, he was battling through again.
‘That’s three starts in a week for someone who's come off the back of surgery and is performing very, very well for a player with the expectations we have of him. I'm really, really pleased.
‘Marco was also signalling that he was cramping up again, so we need to try to build up that fitness to make sure we're fitter and fitter as the weeks go on.’