Portsmouth handed major injury boost as Danny Cowley delivers updates over ex-Wigan Athletic, Crewe Alexandra and Preston North End men

Danny Cowley has reported positive news over sidelined trio Tom Lowery, Joe Rafferty and Michael Jacobs.

Encouragingly, Lowery's hamstring strain is not as bad as first thought after he was withdrawn from Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Plymouth before half-time

The Pompey boss revealed after the game that the midfielder would be sent off for scans to uncover the extent of the issue.

The Blues head coach explained the 24-year-old picked up a minor tear and is hopeful he will be able to feature against Ipswich in next week’s top-of-the-table clash.

He told The News: ‘Tom’s had a scan, the good news is that it is a really low level muscular tear.

‘It’s on the bicep femoris, which is the outside hamstring but it’s only a grade one.

‘The good news is that was only the scan but in terms of his symptoms, he’s now not feeling that in every day life which is a real positive.

‘We’ve been able to push on with his rehab as of today. We’re certainly hopeful he’ll be available.’

Meanwhile, Michael Jacobs and Joe Rafferty have been in the treatment room with groin and stomach muscle injuries respectively.

The pair have been missing from the Blues’ previous three league matches and Cowley is also pleased with how they are recovering.

He added: ‘Michael (Jacobs) is back in training which is good.

‘The good thing for him is that the last 10 days he’s been able to do a lot of work on the grass and a lot of fitness-related work.

‘He hasn’t been able to really strike through balls, so the fact that he can do that is good and he hasn’t lost a lot of fitness.

‘Joe Rafferty, there’s been some good news on him in the last 48 hours.

‘He’s got a strain to the stomach muscle, it’s quite low level but is quite debilitating and quite hard to rehab.

‘We’ve taken a rehab approach with it and we’re hopeful that’s going to work because otherwise he will need some low level surgery, which will mean he’ll be out for around four weeks.

‘We’re hopeful that the rehab approach we’ve taken will do the trick and will be back playing very soon.’