Portsmouth’s plan to fend off another injury crisis as 25-man Championship squad registered

And the number of under-21 players he feels he can already lean on can help fend off another injury crisis if the Blues are once again beset by absences.

Mousinho’s view comes with the EFL set to announce clubs’ squad lists for the rest of the season, following yesterday’s deadline for Championship sides to register players.

All second-tier sides have to adhere to the 25-man limit in place, with their pool of players coming from that group. The exceptions, however, are permanent under-21 options, who do not take up one of those precious spots.

In Pompey’s case they are expected to name 24 players with Paddy Lane and Jacob Farrell out for the season, which does leave them the flexibility to bring in a free agent if they deem it beneficial to do so.

But after bringing in Aussie pair Hayden Matthews and Thomas Waddingham last month, they now have seven under-21 players who could feature. Terry Devlin, Harvey Blair, Abdoulaye Kamara, Toby Steward and Reuben Swann are the other players in that category, which Mousinho feels provides an additional coating of security if the absences which stretched options to the limit last year resurface.

Mousinho said: ‘What we have got in the squad, which I think is relatively promising, is quite a few players under the bracket of needing to register them in the 25-man squad.

‘There’s the likes of Harvey (Blair), Terry (Devlin), Tommy (Waddingham) and we’ve got Hayden (Matthews) in there as well, Toby Steward, Reuben Swann and Abdou Kamara.

Strength in depth

‘So we have a good mixture of those players and we have that strength outside of the 25 we have to register. So I’d say we’re pretty much where we expected to be.

‘We always had to make sure with the injuries we had and the high injury rates right across the board with every single club, we have to be prepared to be as strong as possible.

‘We’ve had a lot of times this season where we’ve just about filled the bench this season with 20 pros. That’s despite having all those young players, 25 registered and a couple on top, we’ve just managed to fill the bench and needed Michael (Ani) and Harry (Clout) at times, too.

‘So we have to be wary of the fact we will always be faced with difficulties through the season - and we need that strength in depth.’