Portsmouth Football Club have today released a statement confirming that 25 year old right-back Zak Swanson has “undergone knee surgery and will miss the rest of the season.”
This news comes at a pivotal time of the season for John Mousinho’s blues as they fight to stay up for a second successive season, with the ominous truth that Portsmouth’s injury-list has now extended to seven players sidelined, posing a real threat to the club’s ambitions.
Since joining from Arsenal in the Summer of 2022, Swanson has this season established himself as a staple of Mousinho’s Portsmouth side.
Swanson has in total played 111 times for Portsmouth in his time at the club, scoring six goals including a scorcher against Millwall in November this season (watch here) and making a name for himself as a very passionate fan-favourite.
Throughout this season, Swanson has often found himself covering out of position at left back in the absence of Conor Ogilvie who has since made a timely return from injury, despite his recent controversial sending off against Oxford United.
In this time, his performances have elevated dramatically as he excelled in his role out of position for Pompey.
In fact, even after the return of fellow fan-favourite Ogilvie from his prolonged spell in the injury room, it was Swanson who was preferred at left back for the Blues, with him being moved temporarily to centre-back for a short spell of games.
Although, this did come at a time in which Portsmouth had a central defensive injury crisis which could well explain the decision to move Ogilvie out to this role and keep Swanson in his unfamiliar role at left-back.
Swanson’s injury unfortunately comes at a crucial stage of the season for Mousinho’s Portsmouth side, who currently find themselves in 21st place just one point above relegation rivals Oxford United and the drop zone.
On top of this, starting left back Ogilvie was given a three match ban, despite an appeal to the FA, after a controversial red card tackle on Oxford Stan Mills earlier this month.
This, therefore leaves Portsmouth in a cagey position with only one left back (Jordan Williams), who happens to be hugely injury prone, being fit and available until Ogilvie’s return possibly against Coventry City.
Swanson has today become the seventh player currently injured for Portsmouth, joining Mark Kosznovszky and Sunderland loanee Aji Alese on the list of players ruled out for the remainder of the campaign.
As well as these players, Josh Murphy, Ebou Adams, Franco Umeh and Florian Bianchini are all out injured at the moment but are all expected to return at some point during the club’s crucial upcoming run-in.
Murphy in particular has been a huge loss for Portsmouth throughout the campaign, only making 14 appearances but still recording the highest number of assists for the Blues this season after what was an outstanding individual campaign for the former Cardiff City man last season.
Unfortunately for the Fratton Faithful, whilst not fully ruled out by Mousinho, a return to the pitch for the winger this season has been labelled “unlikely”, despite the fact Murphy has since returned to training.
More positively though, January signing Adams has been earmarked for a return to matchday action on April the 18th for what could be a relegation deciding fixture as Portsmouth host Leicester City at Fratton Park.
Ultimately, Portsmouth’s squad still doesn’t remain as depleted through injury as it has done at many points during this Championship campaign.
The majority of these players out injured, bar Murphy, Adams, Kosznovszky and Swanson himself, are fringe players.
In fact, in more recent times, crucial players such as Conor Shaughnessy, Keshi Anderson and Andre Dozzell have all returned and made vitally important contributions to a Portsmouth side truly fighting for their lives.
This indicates very positive signs of things to come for the Blues at a time in which such miracles are definitely needed most.
More recently there have been key names returning and some ready to return in the near future that have outweighed such bad news and look to strengthen this Portsmouth side.
Portsmouth face Ipswich Town on Tuesday night in their game-in-hand on the teams around them.
The fixture is crucial for both teams but it is Portsmouth who will be hoping to use their home advantage to gain breathing space from the drop zone against a high-flying and full of confidence Ipswich side.
