Portsmouth keen on triallist's return after former West Ham and Manchester City defender departs

The former West Ham and Manchester City man spent three weeks trialling with the Blues, consisting of four friendly outings.

Last weekend’s appearance against Wycombe represented the end of his stay, with the central defender subsequently departing Fratton Park for a trial elsewhere.

Nonetheless, the Blues remain interested in the free agent, with Baptiste having impressed during his south-coast stint.

And Mousinho revealed talks are ongoing about a potential return for the 20-year-old.

Pompey’s head coach told The News: ‘Jamal was on trial up until Saturday (last week). We are still in talks, but at the moment he hasn’t been training with us this week.

‘Quite possibly he could come back, but I think Jamal has some other options, so it’s about weighing all those up.

‘I thought he did really well, well enough for us to still be interested, but there’s a lot of factors in play with that and potentially other clubs in terms of what we are looking at in that department.

‘We’ve got to assess all the options there. I thought he did pretty well.’

Pompey are clearly short at centre-half and it remains a position they haven’t strengthened following promotion to the Championship.

The popular Sean Raggett was handed a free transfer and subsequently joined Rotherham, while Regan Poole is not yet back in full training following his ACL.

That leaves Conor Shaughnessy, Ryley Towler and Tom McIntyre as the central-defensive options heading into the August 10 opener at Leeds.

McIntyre missed Tuesday night’s 1-1 draw at MK Dons with a tight hamstring, with Shaughnessy and Towler instead forming the defensive partnership.

Shaughnessy was then among six players substituted in the 79th minute at Stadium MK, with central midfielder Ben Stevenson taking his place in an unfamiliar role.