Portsmouth's medical marvel is human after all as ex-Cardiff and Bristol City playing machine motors on

But after collecting only his second injury in 580 career games, don’t bank on the midfield machine breaking down again any time soon.

A grade two hamstring injury at Charlton in October condemned Pack for a rare spell on the sidelines, coinciding with a one-match suspension.

Danny Cowley has received some criticism over his recruitment of injury-prone players, but that certainly doesn’t apply to the Buckland lad.

Incredibly, Pack’s set-back at the Valley represented the second time he has been absent from first-team availability in more than 13 years since making his Football League debut in September 2009.

Even then the 31-year-old was ruled out for just Pompey two matches – and now he’s back.

He told The News: ‘I also did my hamstring at Cardiff, meaning it was a second official injury to rule me out of games.

‘It’s frustrating, but to play as many games as I have and only get two injuries is pretty good – and even then I only missed two league games because of the suspension.

‘I suppose my injury record is quite rare for my style of play, I put a lot of work into the game, especially loading my muscles to cover long distances, and, as footballers, hamstrings are much-used muscles.

‘I’m fortunate, but, at the same time, I’ve looked after myself so injuries have been minimal.

‘There’s now so much science, everything gets looked into, such as lifestyle and the way you conduct yourself on a daily basis, while sometimes people are genetically more prone to muscular injuries than others.

‘I feel I have quite a robust nature and, while I’ve been injured quite a lot of times in my career, I’ve always been one to roll my slaves up and get one with it.

‘You don't go into a game 100 per cent fine, no-one ever does, it’s part of the game and as a footballer you get on with it.

‘You’re used to training and playing tired. The body is a wonderful thing, it can cope with a lot of demands.’

Curiously, Pack had already torn his hamstring when given a red card at Charlton in October.

The former Bristol City midfielder had collected the injury in the first half, yet, with the Blues 2-0 down, opted to continue for the good of the team.

Then, in the 66th minute, the injured player earned his second yellow card and marching orders.

He added: ‘Playing on with my hamstring injury didn’t make it worse.

‘We were 2-0 down and you want to help the team, it might have been a different story if we had been cruising at 2-0, then I could have come off.

‘The hamstring may have slowed me down a little in that challenge that earned me the red card, but I don’t think it made any difference.’