"Absolutely ludicrous" - Claim made on Portsmouth FC situation | OneFootball

FLW's Portsmouth fan pundit believes that injuries have hindered the club this season.

This article is part of Football League World's 'Terrace Talk' series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Portsmouth are facing an injury crisis in defence as they battle to stay up in the Championship.

John Mousinho has been forced to utilise midfielder Marlon Pack in defence on a number of occasions this term, and after he thought he had suitably strengthened his squad with the signings of Rob Atkinson and Hayden Matthews in January, he is back to square one now that both of them are injured.

Atkinson, Matthews, Conor Shaughnessy and Ibane Bowat are currently sidelined for Pompey, while Tom McIntyre was sent on loan to Charlton Athletic in January, leaving Regan Poole and Ryley Towler as the only fit centre-backs in the squad, and the latter seems to be out of favour with Mousinho.

We asked our Pompey fan pundit, Miltos Ioannidis, what the biggest issue at the club is at this moment in time, and he pointed to the injury crisis in defence.

"Definitely how short we are looking in the centre-back position," said Miltos.

"If you had told me we would be in this position a few weeks ago, I don't think I would have believed you at all, because we were just coming towards the end of the transfer window, and we had signed two really good centre-backs in Atkinson and Matthews.

"Both players are injured right now. We just had Conor Shaughnessy come back, he played a few games, he then also got injured, and we are all of a sudden left with Regan Poole as our only fit and capable centre-back.

"We have gone back to playing our captain, leader and legend, Marlon Pack, in the centre-back position, but unfortunately, that is a position that Marlon Pack is not so comfortable with, and does not have the legs to play in.

"It is a pretty crazy scenario because we had both Atkinson and Matthews get injured in the same game, and that is pretty bad luck for us. We have had a lot of defenders, especially, get injured this season and at this point I just want to point out that if we are aiming to take a step forward next season, we will need to be less unlucky when it comes to injuries.

"Our luck with injuries this season has been absolutely ludicrous, it has been almost bizarre, laughable to an extent, and with 11 games still to go, John Mousinho said that we will be looking at the free agent market, although there is always the fear that they are not fit and ready to go immediately.

"That is exactly what we need right now. We need players that are ready to step in and play now, so it is a bit worrying how short we are looking in that department, but hopefully we will be OK in terms of survival.

"I still remain confident that we will stay up, but it is definitely an issue that I do not think anyone anticipated we would be facing, even a couple of weeks ago.

"We were looking very strong in that position and now look at us, we are back to playing Marlon Pack and Regan Poole."

It has been revealed in recent days that Mousinho will explore the market for free agents amid Portsmouth's defensive injury crisis, as per The News.

"It’s one of those where it’s very difficult at this stage of the season when the free agents pop up, and there’s a month or two left of the season," said Mousinho.

"It’s going to take them three or four weeks to get up to scratch, usually off the back of injury or getting released, so it’s a very, very difficult market to get right." With eight points currently separating Pompey from the bottom three, they will have faith that they can stay up despite their lack of options at centre-back even if they are unable to identify a suitable free agent, but it is definitely a problem that was not needed at this stage of the season.