Brett Pitman could make his Pompey comeback at Oldham this weekend.
The striker has not featured since injuring his hamstring against Southend last month, keeping him out of the past three matches.
Saturday’s contest comes too soon for Gareth Evans, though, while Nathan Thompson still has one match of his suspension to serve and Oli Hawkins is also out.
But Kenny Jackett might at least have his skipper and top scorer available to face the in-form Latics.
The Blues boss said: “We’re hoping he’ll be able to train fully at some point this week and will join the rest of the group up at Oldham.
“We’ll never take a chance with a hamstring injury, but he should be able to do a good amount of work before the game.
"We’re hoping he’ll be able to train fully at some point this week and will join the rest of the group up at Oldham."
“It’s been seemingly the longest ban in the world for Nathan – he’s been working away in that gym forever.
“So we’ll be pleased to get him back because his experience and general decisions are something that we’ve missed.
“But it obviously won’t be this weekend and Evans also won’t be available, although he’s coming along well and it's probablt another two weeks until Oli is back training.”
Defender Jack Whatmough made his long-awaited return from injury in Saturday’s home defeat to Gillingham.
Jackett said: “I was really pleased with Jack because he didn’t look out-of-sorts fitness wise at all.
“There’s no reason why he can’t go again and build on that next Saturday – he only came off for the last 15 minutes so we could get another forward on.
“He looked physically comfortable on the pitch, so I’m both pleased with him and also pleased for him.”
Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain could feature for Pompey in the closing stages of the season after being recalled from his loan spell at Oxford City.