Portsmouth handed much-needed injury boost

The midfielder’s hamstring issue suffered against Bolton at the end of last month isn’t as bad as feared.

Danny Cowley admitted he feared a ‘bleak’ scenario for the summer arrival from Luton Town, after an initial scan.

But the outlook is now looking much more positive for Tunnicliffe, although Cowley has refused to put a timescale on a return to the first-team picture for him.

After stating he could be down to as little as 14 fit senior players at Wycombe, Cowley acknowledged the news over Tunnicliffe is a boost.

He said ‘It looks like one which isn’t as bad as first anticipated, actually.

‘It’s a tear in the hamstring, but he did it through the position he found his body in.

‘He didn’t even tear his biceps femoris, which is usually the case.

‘The semimembranosus is a strange muscle actually.

‘If you have an ACL(knee injury), it’s normally the muscle that if you have a graft they take the fibres from there to strengthen the cruciate, because it doesn’t really do too much.

‘So he could be back sooner than anticipated. That’s a positive.

‘The outlook was looking bleak, from what we thought after the first scan.

‘You have to treat the player not the scan, but when you’re down to as many players as we have any news like that is good news. Absolutely.’

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