Portsmouth's forgotten man handed comeback hope after nightmare season
The teenage midfielder has played just 22 minutes this season after injury issues
Pompey’s forgotten man has hit the comeback trail once more after recovering from his latest injury set-back.
Reuben Swann has suffered some torrid misfortune over the last six months as he strives to make an impact at Fratton Park.
After a hip flexor issue devastated his pre-season plans, a knee injury cut short a second loan spell with the Hawks in October after just one substitute appearance.
Indeed, Swann has totalled just 22 minutes of first-team action - and one goal - during the 2025-26 season so far, albeit solely with the Westleigh Park club.
And with the June 2024 arrival from AFC Sudbury still awaiting his Pompey debut, Mousinho is hopeful the well-regarded 19-year-old can finally shake off his injury woes.
Portsmouth boss: ‘We just want to get him games’
The Blues head coach told The News: ‘Reuben’s just putting together his first serious block of training with us, so we’re pretty pleased with him.
‘He suffered a knee injury when he went back to Havant, so that curtailed that. He’s just back with us now and has been back training for about three weeks.
‘The most important thing is for him to stay fit with us before we look at getting him another loan. We just want to get him games and try to develop him.
‘Reuben did well for Havant and ultimately hasn’t managed to play enough games and we want to get him back to that.’
Shining at AFC Sudbury
Swann had attracted Pompey’s attention after making seven appearances and scoring twice for Southern League Southern Central side Sudbury in 2023-24.
That prompted the Blues to pay an undisclosed fee to land the teenager, before sending him on a season-long loan to the Hawks, where he made 43 appearances, scoring seven times and assisting six goals.
Ahead of last summer’s Pompey pre-season, he worked hard on his fitness back home in Ipswich in a bid to make an impact and subsequently earned praise from Mousinho.
However, he damaged his hip flexor while on the Blues’ Slovakian training camp and would be involved in just one friendly, ironically against the Hawks in July, as the injury hampered his involvement.
Upon Swann’s return to fitness, Mousinho initially resisted the urge to send him out on loan, preferring to develop the midfielder through training with the first-team.
Goal-scoring second debut
However, in October, he rejoined the Hawks and marked a second debut with a goal just six minutes after being introduced off the bench in a 4-2 win over Tiverton Town in the FA Trophy.
Days later, though, he collected an ankle injury in training, prematurely ending his latest Westleigh Park involvement and delivering yet another blow to his development.
Mousinho added: ‘I’m not sure why Reuben keeps picking up these injuries, if we had the answer we would be able to prevent it from doing so.
‘But the last injury was down to contact - and there’s nothing we can do about that.’
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