Blues handed injury blow as Thompson looks set to sit out the festive fixtures
IT’S BEEN confirmed – Louis Thompson has handed Danny Cowley another injury blow.
The Pompey boss has revealed the midfielder will likely be out of action for three weeks at least.
That’s after the 26-year-old suffered a hip injury in the build-up to Saturday’s FA Cup second-round defeat at the hands of Harrogate.
And it’s set to place further strain on an already over-stretched squad that is persevering without the likes Clark Robertson, Ryan Tunnicliffe, Paul Downing, Liam Vincent and Jayden Reid.
Cowley also had to make do without Joe Morrell and George Hirst for the visit of Town at the weekend as they felt the affects of a sickness bug that infiltrated the Blues camp last week.
Now the Pompey manager is facing up to the prospect of being without an in-form Thompson going into a busy festive period – a situation he feels is unfair on the squad and the player himself.
When asked about the extend of the former Norwich’s man’s hip injury, Cowley told The News:
‘It's just frustrating really because we're doing all we can with Louis.
‘Louis is working very, very hard behind the scenes with all of his pre-hab work so we can be proactive.
‘We knew when we took Louis there would be some risks - the contract that we took Louis on represents that and that's that pay-asyou-play deal.
‘And that's why our heart is with him because he's a great kid, is very professional and works incredibly hard.
‘There'll be no-one more frustrated than him but as he's shown time and time again he has the fighting qualities to overcome this.
‘We will have to wait and see (on the true extend of the injury) - but we anticipate somewhere between 3-4 weeks.’
After the 2-1 defeat to Harrogate, Cowley said he had never experienced an injury situation like the one he’s faced at Pompey this season.
He insisted he and his medical team would root out the cause.
However, Cowley added that the number of games so far this season hadn’t helped matters
‘I think whenever you lose players in the group it's a big blow, particularly when you have the number of injuries that we have,’ he said.
‘I think that's what we're finding with the number of games.
‘But, also, once you get into an injury crisis, your group shrinks, you have less players available to you so you have to overuse the players that are available to you and it kind of creates that domino affect that we're living at the moment.
‘There's no real answer. We're looking at everything.’
Thompson has featured 15 times for Pompey this season after arriving on a free transfers in the summer.