‘Don’t think you can count on him this season’: Portsmouth boss delivers harsh reality over £1m man's injury
The former Leicester City and Peterborough United man has been out since November, with John Mousinho giving an honest update over the outlook for the defender.
It will be a ‘bonus’ if Pompey see Josh Knight back in first-team action this season.
John Mousinho has made it clear the Blues can’t count on having one of the biggest signings of last summer back in action this term.
Mousinho on Knight: ‘I don’t think you can count him on him coming back’
The £1m arrival from Hannover 96 has been sidelined since last November, with an injury which was later identified as a back stress fracture.
Mousinho confirmed Knight has now been given the green light to accelerate his rehabilitation, following a scan on the problem area.
But the nature of the former Peterborough and Leicester City man’s issue, means the 28-year-old still requires a lengthy period to build himself into a position to be ready to feature.
Knight has not been able to do any kind of fitness work in his stint out of action, with Mousinho acknowledging the centre-back is running out of time to feature this term. The head coach made it clear he feels there can’t be an expectation Knight will be back in contention for next term.
Mousinho said: ‘Josh got the all clear on the scan for the stress fracture on his back.
‘But because he’s been out for so long, with most injuries you can still do a lot in the gym or with a muscle tear you can control it by doing bike work, cross-trainer or get out on the grass before building up to a high-intensity work.
‘Josh has not been able to do any of that, because of the nature of his injury. So it’s a very, very slow build-up for him. That’s the issue for Josh, the amount of time out against the amount of time it will take him to build back up is pretty big - and we’re running out of weeks.
‘The best-case scenario would be to get him back for the last four or five games - but that’s the best-case scenario. I don’t think you can count him on him coming back, if he comes back that’s a bonus.’
Details over former Leicester man’s rehab
It’s been a difficult first season at Pompey for Knight, who signed a three-year deal last summer, being restricted to 14 appearances with 10 starts along the way. Speaking of the player’s injury earlier this month, Mousinho went into greater detail over how the rehab for Knight is different to what most players go through.
He said: ‘It’s pretty generic rule of thumb, but you usually work off a 1:4 ratio of how long you’ve been out for.
‘If you’ve been out for four weeks you probably need at least a week to build back up, but with Josh he’s been completely off his feet for eight weeks - that’s the difference between this and most other injuries.
‘The other injuries, with return to play, once they’re back and training they’ve probably already been on the training pitch for a couple of weeks and been in the gym active for a couple of weeks. Josh hasn’t had that.
‘It’s been a complete deactivation for him, which means it will probably match up 1:1 with the build-up to return to play.'