'To be honest': Portsmouth boss John Mousinho makes Kusini Yengi confession ahead of West Brom game - after striker's red card for Socceroos

The Blues striker was sent off in the 77th minute of the Socceroos’ World Cup qualifier against Bahrain after a high boot caught defender Sayed Baqer in the throat.

It leaves the 25-year-old facing a three-match international ban and having no need to meet up with Graham Arnold’s next Australia get-together next month.

For Pompey, that has obvious advantages for the medium future. But focusing on the here and now, the Blues boss believes he can make the most of Yengi’s international misdemeanour.

Indeed, after a stop-start beginning to the Championship season for the front man, Mousinhi expects Yengi to be fresh for Sunday’s visit of West Brom. He also believes that puts him in contention to start against the Baggies - something he’s still to do this season.

‘He got 75 minutes in the first game (for Australia) then unfortunately got sent off and ended up not playing the second game,’ said Mousinho, ahead of the Blues’ return to league action.

‘To be honest, that’s probably a benefit for us as he’s slightly fresher. 

‘Coming back, the lads who had played the two 90 minutes (while on international duty) - Terry Devlin, for example, who has gone away with Northern Ireland under-21s and played two batches of 90 minutes, he’s probably come back here with a bit more in the legs than a couple of the other lads, even though Sammy Silvera played 90 the other night, but he didn’t the week before.

‘I don’t think it’s the end of the world that Kas didn’t play both those games.

‘He’s ready for a start now for Pompey’.

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Yengi, who scored 13 goals in 31 games last season, has managed just two Blues appearances off the bench so far this term, after picking up a groin injury towards the end of pre-season.

Coupled with Colby Bishop’s heart surgery, it left Mousinho short of options up front for the start of the season.

Now Mousinho is looking forward to seeing the former Western Sydney Wanderers striker kicking on from his maiden season at Fratton Park.

The boss added: ‘He’s had a stop-start season I think because of the injury that he picked up.

‘He looked really sharp in pre-season, picked up the groin injury when I think he would have started the game at  Leeds, but has got himself back into the mix, playing against Middlesbrough, playing against Sunderland.

‘Unfortunately, we haven’t seen a huge amount of him over the past week because he had been away with Australia so I think we’re just waiting for Kas to get going this year.’