'Bang on' - Portsmouth boss confirms fitness boost for Millwall and two absentees

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho has provided an injury update ahead of his side’s clash with Millwall this weekend. Pompey are currently 17th in the Championship table and five points ahead of the relegation zone with six games remaining.

Mousinho’s men look as though they may have enough to beat the drop, but given the number of teams still involved in the relegation battle this season, they will likely need at least four points if not six to make sure.

Pompey don’t have a particularly easy run-in though, facing Millwall this weekend before turning attention to playoff challengers Coventry City and a huge game with relegation-threatened Derby County. Portsmouth did win last time out, beating Blackburn Rovers at home, but before that they lost back-to-back games, so they have been far from consistent as they look to haul themselves over the finish line as far as survival goes.

Ahead of this weekend’s clash with the Lions, Pompey boss Mousinho has provided an injury update, confirming that he had a big group to work with, and defensive duo Conor Shaughnessy and Rob Atkinson are back in training, even if they won’t return yet.

Mousinho told The News: “It always happens. It'll be a completely different picture, I'm sure, at some point. But that's the way it seems. Feasts or famine sometimes - it's been like that this season. We've looked at situations where we've left four or five out of squads, we've looked at other situations where we've called up players from the academy to fill the squad, and there doesn't really ever seem to be anything in between.

“So I think, touch wood, hopefully, we get a decent report this afternoon that everybody's come through today's training session, which I think they have. We'll go again on Friday, and then after Friday, we'll hopefully have a decent enough squad to pick from. We've trained with, I think, 24 or 23 outfield players today, so we're back up to some decent numbers.

“We've got quite a few that have come back in over the last couple of weeks. I think in terms of the headlines, the big headline is Kas (Kusini Yengi) is back in full training. Other than that, the short-termers are back in and returning. We haven't got the long-termers back yet, but they're very, very close to returning to training - the likes of Conor Shaughnessy and Rob Atkinson. They've taken a step in the right direction, they've been out on the grass every day for the past couple of weeks. They're not quite ready for the weekend, but we've got a pretty healthy squad to pick from at the moment.”

Portsmouth handed injury boost for Millwall

In a fresh boost for Pompey, striker Kusini Yengi will return, with the Australian having contributed nine goals in 34 league appearances so far this season. Mousinho added: “He's bang on schedule. Kas trained on Saturday morning, (was) back in full training on Monday. Yes (he’s in contention for the Millwall game).”

Millwall are now 13th in the Championship table, six points off the playoffs and needing to hit a very consistent run of form starting this weekend if they want to overcome that gap.

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