Portsmouth boss John Mousinho declares stance on deregistering Sunderland loanee after injury blow
The defender is unlikely to play again for the Blues during the duration of his scheduled loan
John Mousinho has admitted Pompey are ‘going to try’ to deregister Aji Alese following his devastating injury set-back.
The defender has returned to parent club Sunderland for treatment on the torn quad he sustained on his Blues debut.
The injury, which happened at Preston earlier this month, is expected to rule Alese out of the remainder of the season, effectively ending his Fratton Park career after just four first-team minutes.
As a consequence, the Blues are currently exploring the possibility of deregistering Alese from their 23-man Football League squad list.
Although, with two spaces already available, there doesn’t appear to be an immediate rush.
‘We are preparing for it to most likely be over’
Mousinho told The News: ‘Most likely his season is over. He’s back at Sunderland, if we can get him back quicker then great, we’ll see what that looks like. He’s obviously still our player - but we are preparing for it to most likely be over.
‘Aji was doing pretty well, I thought he had settled in very well, he was positive when he came in against Preston. It’s impossible to tell how much of an impact he was going to have based on that, but we were pleased.
‘It happened after about five minutes of the game. We had made five subs anyway, although I’m sure it wouldn't have made an ounce of difference with the injury.
‘We can apply to deregister Aji, it depends on the actual length of the injury, verified by an independent consultant - but we are going to try.
‘We deregistered Ibane last season with an injury he picked up in September 2024 and it was a clear 9-10 month injury, so it was really easy to justify at the time that he wasn’t going to be able to play before the January.
‘If you pick up an injury now, you have to make sure there’s a clear four-month injury, so it’s going to be 16 weeks before the player returns. It is slightly different in terms of what you have to demonstrate.
‘We don’t need Aji’s space at the moment, we’ve still got two free spots. It would be useful to have, but we don’t need it.’
Two spaces left in 25-man squad
Harvey Blair, Josh Knight, Florian Bianchini and Jordan Archer are the four members of Pompey’s first-team set-up currently not registered for their 25-man Football League squad.
In the meantime, Mousinho has every empathy for Alese, who has managed just one competitive match over the last 13 months.
He added: ‘Aji is obviously disappointed, he felt he had settled in really well. It’s a tough one when you pick up that many injuries, he’d been out for that long and had a couple of different injuries.
‘He felt he was in a good space. Aji had come back (from injury) and played 45 minutes for Sunderland, then 60 minutes for Sunderland, then built up in training with us for what we thought was a sensible amount of time to play.
‘Unfortunately it doesn't always work out in a straightforward manner but he’s a really good kid and I am sure he will come back stronger.’