Pair ruled out of Leeds United v Portsmouth clash and winger being monitored after knock
A pair of players have been ruled out of Saturday’s Championship opener between Leeds and Portsmouth at Elland Road.
Two Portsmouth players including a shiny new signing have been ruled out of Saturday’s Championship opener against Leeds United at Elland Road for which a winger is being monitored after a knock.
Newly-promoted Pompey took on Charlton Athletic at The Valley on Saturday in the club’s final pre-season friendly but summer signing Jacob Farrell and Tom McIntyre both missed out through injuries.
Australian youth international left back Farrell suffered a knock to his knee in training whilst defender McIntyre experienced a tight hamstring in the previous weekend’s friendly against Wycombe Wanderers.
Both players have now been ruled out of Saturday’s trip to Leeds for which Pompey boss John Mousinho is also ‘monitoring’ another summer signing in Josh Murphy.
The winger, signed from fellow Championship new boys Oxford United, was forced off in the 43rd minute of Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Charlton after suffering a blow to his ankle, although Mousinho is optimistic the 29-year-old will be fit.
Mousinho said to Portsmouth publication The News: “Josh is okay, he has taken a knock to his ankle, it’s just a contact injury, he hasn't gone over on it. There’s not a huge amount of concern there, but we will monitor that. We’ll have to assess that and see if we need a scan - but I think it’s just going to be a contact injury. It’s swelling up a bit, so we’re not too concerned about that.”
Of Farrell and McIntyre, the Pompey boss said: “Tom is currently out with the injury he picked up against Wycombe, so that’s probably a couple of weeks. Most likely he’ll miss the start of the season.
‘We didn’t think Jacob’s injury would be too bad, but he will be out for a couple of weeks as well and miss the first game.‘With everything that’s happening with Jacob, such as coming over from Australia and not being able to settle into training straight away, it’s about making sure we treat that one as we need to treat it.”