Timeline detailed for outstanding defender’s return as Portsmouth boss makes promising prediction over former Manchester United and Lincoln City man’s recovery

John Mousinho has outlined the timeline for Regan Poole’s injury recovery.

And the Pompey boss has predicted the outstanding defender’s knee will be stronger than ever when he makes his return.

Poole’s season is over after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in the FA Cup loss at Chesterfield last month. The 25-year-old underwent surgery four weeks ago in London and is now on the long road to recovery.

Mousinho detailed how the plan is for the former Manchester United and Lincoln man to be back in training for the start of pre-season. Poole will then be monitored with a view to being in contention for the first game of the 2023-24 campaign.

Mousinho said: ‘Regan is about a month post surgery now. He’s doing absolutely fine, but we’re not looking at anything until next season with Regan.

‘The realistic timeline for us is probably to have him back in full training for the first day of pre-season. That would give him a really solid spell of rehab over the summer and allow him to get his fitness back.

‘Then we’d drop him in and out of training for the first couple of weeks of pre-season. Then hopefully we’d have him fully fit for the first game next season.'

Mousinho explained how Poole’s knee surgery went as well as could be expected, with damage only to the anterior cruciate ligament.  The Pompey boss feels it will actually allow Poole’s knee to be stronger than it was before the injury.

He added: ‘The surgery was all absolutely line. He had a really clean ACL tear. There was no damage to the meniscus or anything else.

‘The surgery these days are extremely, extremely efficient. They artificially rebuild your ACL and as soon as the graft settles you’re ready to go and it’s stronger than it was before.’