Pair injured ahead of pre-season

Pompey begin their latest assault on the Championship on Monday, yet already have two players occupying the treatment room.

Pre-season officially kicksoff on June 20 when Danny Cowley’s men return to their Hilsea training base.

Presently no new faces are scheduled to be in attendance, although the Blues still possess a 17-man first-team squad plus four youngsters from their Academy.

However, Joe Morrell and Haji Mnoga are currently sidelined, having collected injuries while on international duty.

Morrell is the more serious, breaking a toe in the second half of Wales’ 2-1 Nations’ League loss to Holland last week.

The full extent of his toe injury has still to be revealed, yet the 25-year-old can be expected to miss the opening weeks of pre-season.

In addition, Mnoga is currently out of action ahead of a crucial summer period in which he needs to catch the eye of Cowley following his successful Weymouth loan spell.

The versatile defender had to be substituted in the 38th minute of Tanzania’s 1-1 draw against Niger in the Africa Cup of Nations at the start of the month.

The groin issue subsequently kept him out of their 2-0 defeat at the hands of Algeria four days later.

The good news for the 20-year-old is the injury is regarded as minor, thereby shouldn’t impact significantly upon his pre-season.

It remains to be seen whether Monday will also mark the injury returns of Jayden Reid, Reeco Hackett, Denver Hume and Kieron Freeman.

Reid missed the whole of last season after suffering cruciate knee ligament damage in a friendly at Luton in July 2021.