Portsmouth hit with defensive injury woes

The outlook is better for Lee Brown, however, after the left-back hobbled off in the first half of Saturday's 5-2 win at Fleetwood.

Left-back Brown is expected to be missing for a couple of weeks after also injuring a hamstring at the Highbury Stadium.

Oil Hawkins missed the game with an ankle problem as Brett Pitman came into the starting XI.

Hawkins failed a fitness test but Jackett is optimistic the striker will be quickly back in the reckoning.

Pompey boss Kenny Jackett said: '˜It's a hamstring (with Brown).

'˜He's just turned slightly.

'˜We don't think it's as bad as Nathan's.

'˜Hopefully he won't be out for too long but we certainly don't think he'll be available on Tuesday or the following Saturday.

'˜It's the type of thing that usually takes two or three weeks.

'˜The estimate is four weeks with Nathan.

'˜Oli has injured an ankle.

'˜We took him with us but he failed a fitness test.'

Jackett noted that both Thompson and Brown have picked up similar injuries - and that's something he plans to investigate.

With the problems picked up over the busy Christmas period the Pompey boss wants to know if more could've been done to prevent them.

Jackett has no doubts about the professionalism shown by both players in the manner they would've recovered from their exertions over an intense run of fixtures.

He added: '˜It's never a good feeling.

'˜They've played all the way through, so we'll have a look.

'˜We'll have a look at the training programme and talk to the players individually.

'˜Generally though we are talking about two very professional and well-prepared people.'