UPDATE: News on Tom Lowery's Portsmouth return and progress of ex-Liverpool and West Ham United pair's comebacks

The midfielder last week took the next step towards putting his Blues injury hell to bed.

And interim head coach Simon Basset believes the summer signing from Crewe can starting gazing towards a return to the first-team fray.

Bassey added an air of warning that both Lowery, who has been suffering with an ongoing hamstring issue, and Joe Raffery will need time to build their fitness.

Rafferty has endured two hernia operations, while Lowery has been going through platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections to add his recovery.

Bassey said: ‘Tom Lowery and Joe Rafferty were in London at the end of last week, to see the specialist separately.

‘Hopefully that’s the last time they see them, but they’ve been away from the team for a long time.

‘Tom had an injection on Friday, but he’s progressing now.

‘Fingers crossed there’s sunnier days ahead for him, because he was excellent for us earlier in the season.

‘We’re looking at two to four weeks if we get the brilliant news on Joe that he’s available.

‘That will still probably be two to four weeks to build him up again, because he’s had two surgeries and missed a lot of training.’

Meanwhile, Jay Mingi is due to have his knee brace removed this week, after picking up a knee injury in a training collision with keeper Josh Oluwayemi.

The midfielder was expected to be sidelined for six weeks from when the incident took place in the build-up to the FA Cup loss at Spurs.

But Mingi is determined to be back ahead of schedule and aid Pompey’s efforts to reverse their struggles.

Bassey added ‘Jay is still in his brace and that will come off early this week.

‘But he’s doing his cardiovascular and upper body work.

‘So hopefully we can have some more bodies back going forward.’