Portsmouth boss reveals transfer picture over free agent moves after devastating triple injury blow

Pompey will resist the temptation to move into the free agent market after their injury triple whammy.

The Blues are reeling from the news three of their players have today been ruled out of the remainder of the promotion bid.

Joe Morrell (knee), Tom McIntyre (fractured ankle) and Terry Devlin (shoulder) are all unlikely to kick another ball this season for John Mousinho’s side.

That’s on top of Regan Poole and Alex Robertson also being ruled out for the season in a devastating run of injury blows for the Blues.

With the transfer window now closed, the only way Pompey could offset their losses would be to look to bring in out-of-contract players.

That’s not a route Mousinho feels the club will look to travel, however.

When asked if Pompey will look at the free agent market, Mousinho said: ‘Not particularly.

‘It’s not ideal and we’d always want to go with four in the centre-back position, for example.

‘But unless anything screams out at us, which it isn’t at the moment, there’s nothing we want to do and we’re happy with where we are.’

Pompey now look set to go with Tom Lowery, Owen Moxon and Marlon Pack as their central midfield options, with Ben Stevenson returning from a knee injury.

In defence it’s Ryley Towley, Conor Shaughnessy and Sean Raggett, with Connor Ogilvie offering flexible cover.

Mousinho feels he still has options in both departments, despite the size of the setbacks faced.

He added: ‘The beauty of having a squad is where we are.

‘We wanted to strengthen that centre-half department in January, that’s why we brought in Tom.

‘We wanted those four centre-backs and we kept everyone else because we knew things could change.

‘The worse thing which could have happened was the two front-line centre-halves start every game and two centre-backs didn’t get too many minutes.

‘We would’ve have taken that on board and thought it was the best thing to do.

‘As it transpires, we’re a week in and the situation have changed - we have three centre-backs and Connor Ogilvie gives the ability to cover.

‘So we think we’re in good position, and still count ourselves lucky to have what we consider to have three front-line centre-backs at League One level.’