Blues welcome back
POMPEY WILL welcome back a quartet of absentees at Bristol City as the Fratton Park unavailability list begins to subside.
Sean Raggett and Ellis Harrison both made their injury returns in Friday’s behind-closed-doors match at St George's Park.
Raggett started the fixture, partnering Clark Robertson in the centre of defence, while Harrison appeared as a substitute.
Providing there has been no reaction to their previous injuries, both are in the frame to feature in this afternoon’s fixture at Bristol City’s training ground (2pm).
Also set for comebacks are Lee Brown and Reeco Hackett-Fairchild, who were unavailable on Friday.
Hackett-Fairchild left Pompey’s training camp at St George’s Park last Tuesday to be with his partner during labour.
The couple welcomed a baby boy on Thursday – with the left-winger expected to be back on Pompey duty from yesterday.
In addition, Brown missed the behind-closed-doors friendly after returning to
his Surrey home for family reasons.
In his absence, triallist Sam Habergham, a former Lincoln left-back, turned out, although Brown is pencilled in to return against Bristol City in a behind-closed-doors game.
That leaves Michael Jacobs, Gavin Bazunu, Paul Downing and Liam Vincent on the sidelines for Pompey.
Jacobs is making progress from the medial knee ligament injury sustained in April.
Bazunu is pencilling in a full comeback at the end of this week.
Potentially, that could put him in the frame for Saturday’s friendly visit to Luton.
Elsewhere, Downing has been nursing a hamstring issue, although it is not believed to be a tear.
As a precautionary measure, he sat out the bulk of training sessions at St George’s Park last week.
While summer signing Vincent has a problem with his left leg, prompting him to wear a protective boot.
Still, the outlook is considerably sunnier for Raggett and Harrison.
Raggett had been troubled by a knock to his right ankle, ruling him out the friendly victory over the Hawks.
He returned to full training in the middle of last week at St George’s Park and was judged ready for a run out on Friday.
As for Harrison, he damaged lateral knee ligaments in March, requiring the striker to undergo an operation.
He rejoined full training on Monday last week and was eased into the action on Friday when introduced from the bench.