Pompey have received a triple injury blow with the news that three players are set to miss the remainder of the season.
Joe Morrell and Terry Devlin both went off during the recent draw at Oxford after hurting knee and shoulder respectively.
That was followed by Tom McIntyre limping from the turf in Saturday’s win over Northampton following a challenge with Mitch Pinnock.
The debutant defender was sent off for the incident, although that decision has since been overturned.
Blues boss John Mousinho said: “With Joe, there was unfortunately a small piece of cartilage that chipped off his knee, so he’s in for surgery today [Thursday].
“That’s going to be him for the rest of the campaign, although the good news is that we feared it could be ligament damage, which would have seen him out for a lot longer.
"You look at every injury and how you can do things differently, with training and the player load, but it’s just down to bad luck."
“We don’t how the operation has gone yet – and we hope it’s gone well – but he should be back for pre-season.
“Terry’s shoulder injury is a lot worse than we originally thought and he’s also set for surgery after landing on it awkwardly.
“We’re again looking at three-plus months for his recovery, so that will again take us through to the end of the season.
“There was further blow when we got the news from Tom’s scan that there was a fracture in the ankle and we’re looking at around 12-14 weeks for that.
“It’s a tough one to take after only just signing him and the fact he went into the challenge honestly, which showed from the red card being overturned.
“You look at every injury and how you can do things differently, with training and the player load, but it’s just down to bad luck.”
💬 "It's a really tough one to take. Those three are just down to bad luck."#Pompey boss John Mousinho: ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/obRFUbKtsp
— Portsmouth FC (@Pompey) February 7, 2024