Portsmouth hoping for Colby Bishop boost for crucial Charlton visit after injury scare

The striker was forced off in the 73rd minute of Thursday night’s 2-2 draw, having earlier registered his 14th goal of the season.

Danny Cowley has revealed the former Accrington man suffered a blow to the ribs in the second half, which affected his breathing.

Bishop spent several minutes attempting to continue through clear discomfort, yet was eventually replaced by Dane Scarlett.

Scarlett himself returned to action against the Tractor Boys after being laid low by the sickness bug which has swept through the Pompey camp.

And Cowley is hoping Bishop will be declared available for the New Year’s Day visit of Charlton (3pm) in the ongoing hunt for a League One win.

The Blues head coach told The News: ‘Colby just got a really heavy whack in his ribs, so we’ll see how that settles.

‘He has been ill, but it was a heavy collision on his sternum area which forced him off, it sent his heart racing.

‘He was certainly in a lot of discomfort when he came off. He tried to run, but was struggling with it.’

Pompey also lost skipper Clark Robertson at half time against Ipswich, replaced by Denver Hume.

In the ensuing reshuffle, Hume went to left wing-back, with Connor Ogilvie moved inside to operate as the left-sided centre-half in the back three.

As it turned out, Hume’s cross from the left helped create Bishop’s second-half goal, while Ogilvie was outstanding following his positional switch.

Cowley added: ‘With Clark, it tightened up around the hip area, bringing him off was just precautionary.

‘Denver didn’t train on Wednesday as he’d been ill, which wasn’t ideal because we were only going to use him in extreme circumstances.

‘Jay Mingi trained on Thursday so was a little better. Hopefully he’ll be back in contention for Charlton.

‘There are a lot of them playing under the weather at the moment, credit to them.’