The Portsmouth games injured key midfielder could miss following results of scan - including Reading and Charlton matches

The Blues skipper has been ruled out for 4-6 weeks after scans on Tuesday revealed ankle ligament damage.

The 32-year-old picked up the injury in the second half of Saturday’s 2-1 win at Wigan. While Latics striker Charlie Wyke got sent off for thecostly 49th-minute challenge, Pack hobbled off just after the hour mark as he was unable to continue.

There was initial hope the injury would see Pack sit out the short term. However, after being spotted sporting a protective boot at Tuesday night’s Fratton Park win against Wycombe, it’s now been confirmed that the midfielder could potentially be absent until mid-November.

That could see the former Cardiff and Bristol City ace potentially sit out six games – including key matches against Reading and Charlton. Involvement in Pompey’s trip to Oxford – the team currently sitting directly below the league leaders in the league table – will also be in doubt.

Head coach John Mousinho, however, has his fingers crossed for a quick recovery.

He told The News ahead of Saturday’s visit of Port Vale to PO4: ‘Marlon had a scan on Tuesday after we didn’t necessarily see the improvements that we thought we might see over the weekend.

‘Unfortunately for Marlon, the news isn’t great. We saw him at Fratton Park in a boot on Tuesday night and it’s going to be four to six weeks with Marlon with ankle ligament damage.

‘So a real blow for him because of the form he’s been in and the form he and Joe (Morrell) have been in, in particular. But one thing we know about Marlon is the hard work he puts in in the gym and on the training pitch, so he’ll be back as soon as possible.’

Pack has featured 11 times for Pompey this season, scoring once.

Mousinho added: ‘When a player plays on after one of those injuries, you always feel there’s a possibility that he will be able to train on Tuesday.

‘But he stiffened up on Sunday. We thought it might improve again with 24 hours but we always knew there was some damage in there. Once we got the scan results – we were fairly cautious going into the game on Tuesday – we knew it was a bit worse than we thought.’