Thompson injury hands Appleton fresh headache

But Michael Appleton will not look to bring in additional defensive reinforcements to cover the new recruit’s absence.

The 21-year-old went over on his right ankle in training yesterday in his first session back after a hamstring injury.

Thompson left Pompey’s Eastleigh base with his foot in an Aircast boot.

Appleton believes he could be looking at around six weeks out with the problem,

‘Josh Thompson rolled his ankle yesterday. He looks like he could be out for a substantial amount of time. I don’t want to speak too soon but it looks a minimum of a six-week job,’ said Appleton.

‘It looked bad and swelled up quite badly, quite quickly.’

Appleton plans to focus his recruitment efforts on bringing in attacking options, despite Thompson looking at a substantial lay-off.

The Pompey boss is happy with his cover at the back, with Johnny Ertl, who joined the club at the end of last month, close to full fitness.

Ertl made his debut in the 1-0 defeat to Oldham, scoring an own goal.

But Appleton made it clear the player needed time to get up to speed – and feels he is now virtually at that point.

With Gabor Gyepes likely to feature against Scunthorpe, despite spending most of the week in the treatment room, the Pompey boss knows Ertl will be needed.

Appleton said: ‘We’re down to real bare bones.

‘Luke Rodgers is going to be out for a while, as everyone knows.

‘Gabor hasn’t trained for most of the week. If he is okay and we decide to go with him tomorrow, it will be very likely Johnny will be okay and ready to go on Tuesday for Yeovil. ‘Johnny has shown enough in training in recent weeks to start. Obviously, Gabor has this ankle problem so that’s one where Johnny may have to play and be ready to go straight in.’