The measures Portsmouth are putting in place to protect Jack Whatmough amid football suspension

The Blues are taking steps to ensure the defender strengthens his knee after his return to the fray after a year on the sidelines.

And Kenny Jackett believes the stoppage to the season can be of benefit to the defender after his first-team comeback.

Whatmough is two games into his comeback from pioneering microfracture surgery after damaging cartilage in his left knee.

The 23-year-old also suffered previous cartilage and a cruciate injury to the same knee in his career to date.

Pompey are wary of the impact a stoppage to the season will have on Whatmough’s progress, and are working on a specialised programme to suit his requirements in the restricted setting players face while social distancing.

Jackett said: ‘Once the individual situations have been sorted out we’ve then been able to talk about how best to keep fit.

‘To a degree, that’s individual.

‘Jack Whatmough, for instance, the first few weeks has been a big effort to load up those muscles around that knee with no games on.

‘But now he’s branched out into three days of running. That’s not road running but running on soft surfaces.

‘So hopefully we can use this time to strengthen that area even further if you like. That’s the ideal.

‘We want to make sure those muscles don’t waste or fall away. That’s a priority with his injury history.

‘For us, that process has been based on commonsense really.’

Jackett explained the process of maintaining players’ fitness naturally has been restricted in the face of the constraints the nation is facing to limit the impact of Covid-19.

The problems they can potentially encounter was seen this week as Ronan Curtis returned to Ireland, as he struggled to keep up a training regime in Portsmouth.

Jackett is confident his players are doing all they reasonably be expected to do.

He added: ‘If you look at the government guidelines pretty early on it was make a commitment family wise and stay in one place. That was it and that will be the case for the players.

‘Some have their own place, are living with their girlfriends, married or whatever.

‘For others, do they go back and live with their parents early on? That’s quite a big thing.

‘Then what’s available to them there?

‘For the majority who are staying local not a lot changes necessarily.

‘This is where I am, these are parks local to me and this is what’s available in my house.

‘You can still order equipment, small bits and pieces, too, so we’ve been able to get hold of bits of gym equipment.

‘But the main exercise for the players has been running and being outside. It has to be that. The rest is a supplement.’