Portsmouth hopeful of huge boost as Michael Jacobs closes in on return - but boss feared worst after Sunderland tackle

And Kenny Jackett has admitted he feared the worst over the attacking midfielder’s knee injury picked up at Sunderland last month.

The Blues are set to receive a sizeable boost to their promotion ambitions next month, with Jacobs returning to the fray.

Jackett believes the 29-year-old could be back in training at the start of December and offer a welcome fillip.

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But the Pompey boss has now admitted he was worried about the length of time the former Wigan man could have faced on the sidelines, after being forced off at the Stadium of

Light.

Jackett said: ‘Michael’s going well - he should be training in another two weeks.

‘I haven’t got any targets for him particularly, I want to see him out on the training ground first.

‘If it’s two weeks and he’s outside and can then progress well, that would be great.

‘I haven’t targeted this game or that game for him, but he has recovered well considering it was quite a bad tackle and it could’ve been a lot worse.

‘It did look like it could be a bad one at the time in terms of the tackle.

‘I’m not saying it was necessarily deliberate but he got scissored really and it could’ve been a lot worse.

‘But he’s recovered well and I’ve been pleased with his progress so far.’

There’s high hopes about what Jacobs could offer Pompey’s promotion push, after some strong performances in the seven outings he made before injury struck.

Jackett is looking forward to seeing the ex-Wolves man raise the level of quality his has at his disposal moving forward.

He added: ‘In terms of natural left siders, we have Michael and Ronan who have played there a lot.

‘So I’m looking forward to having him back, because in the short spell we had him I thought he gave us a lot of balance.

‘I do think he balances off a lot of forward play with his football, he’s a very natural footballer.’

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