Pompey boss John Mousinho gives his thoughts on Carlisle United and the talking points ahead of the EFL League One showdown at Fratton Park.
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00:00 Back to league action on Saturday against Carlisle, how did you approach this match?
00:07 It's an interesting one for us because we've had a different approach in terms of the build-up
00:14 and the fact that we didn't have a game at the weekend so we had a bit of time off leading
00:18 into it. The approach this week has been one where we've had three training days on the
00:23 bounce - Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday - we've had plenty of time to get a lot of information
00:26 into the lads and that's been great. It's been a rare one to be honest for us this week.
00:31 There's been some really good stuff that's come out of training and in terms of the game
00:34 itself I think Carlisle, who won promotion last season with a really good playoff final
00:39 victory, they've come into the league and of course some real problems. The last couple
00:45 of weeks they beat Bolton at Bolton 3-1, took a point off Peterborough up at Carlisle and
00:51 yeah they'd be disappointed to lose the game to Leighton Horn at the weekend but plenty
00:55 of a threat I think from that Carlisle side. Some really, really excellent players in there
00:59 with some experience in the league and I think they provided a lot of threats and obviously
01:03 we saw that clearly in the last couple of weeks so we've got to make sure we're ready
01:06 for a tough test. With the international weekend you gave some of your team time off as well
01:11 didn't you? Yeah I thought it was the right thing to do after the Gillingham game we were
01:14 in here on the Wednesday and gave the lads that weren't involved in the internationals
01:20 a bit of time off just a reflection I think of the work that they've done over the past
01:23 six weeks particularly. September was one hell of a month I think in terms of the travel
01:29 and the demand and just the mental demand of winning games and going again and again
01:34 and again I think everyone in the football club felt that, not just the players I think
01:37 the staff, everybody around the football club I think the fans must have felt it as well
01:41 having travelled up and down the country so hopefully it's a nice little breather for
01:43 them. I'm sure they're all raving to get back at it at Framton Park on Saturday but that
01:48 was the rationale behind that and it still gave us plenty of time to work on all the
01:52 things we wanted to work on and have a full training week this week. The guys on international
01:56 duty are they back okay? Yeah we had Robbo back today with Regan, brilliant that Regan
02:03 got his first cap for Wales and did it in a victory, kept a clean sheet. I think Alex
02:07 was on the bench against England the other night, unfortunately didn't get on and we
02:12 get Terry and Paddy back on Friday. Paddy's featured on the bench twice for Northern Ireland
02:16 unfortunately he didn't manage to come on and Terry played I think 75 minutes for the
02:20 under 21s on I think Monday or Tuesday night so yeah really really positive for those guys
02:27 I think just to have that recognition to go away with their national sides and the ones
02:31 that were involved for them to be involved. So if Terry and Paddy are back on Friday does
02:34 that impact on their selection for Carolina on Saturday? No not from our point of view
02:39 what we don't want to do is penalise lads for getting international call-ups so with
02:44 players like Paddy and Terry we know what they're all about, obviously it would be nice
02:48 if we could have them training with us all the time but we want to encourage lads to
02:52 take those international call-ups, we don't want to make it a thing where they're going
02:54 to lose their spots because they go away and players like Paddy and Terry they train brilliantly
02:59 day in day out anyway so there's no problems with them. So they're scheduled to return
03:02 to training on Friday then? Scheduled to return to training on Friday I think, yeah they're
03:06 both back in the country this afternoon if not earlier and yeah they'll be back training
03:10 with us on Friday. The day after tomorrow is then? Day after tomorrow yeah. But they're
03:14 ok if you've spoken to them, they're fine? Yeah they're fine, Terry came through the
03:18 game no problems at all and Paddy didn't feature in either of the games, he was on the bench
03:23 so no problem we'll get the full report from the national associations and that'll go through
03:28 Steve but everything's fine at the moment. In terms of injuries, we'll start off with
03:32 Marlon Packhousey. Yeah Marlon's progressing really well, I think again a bit of time off
03:38 from the schedule has helped him in terms of that extra game that he's hopefully going
03:42 to get back at some point during the season and he's hopefully going to be out on the
03:46 grass next week and then he can build up, we've got to be careful with ligament injuries
03:51 as with any other injuries but make sure that we build him up properly. Marlon's always
03:55 raring to go, he's a really fit young lad anyway, young compared to me anyway so he's
04:01 always fit and raring to go so we've just got to make sure we manage him carefully and
04:04 we've got plenty left of the season so really good positive news for Marlon. What sort of
04:09 time frame are you looking with Marlon? I think probably once he gets back on the grass
04:12 we're still probably looking at about three weeks after that once he's built up. First
04:16 of all when he is back out on the grass it won't be with us so he's got to build up into
04:19 full training then we're probably looking at at least a week to ten days once he's back
04:22 in full training so I think if we split it in half and realistically look at ten days
04:27 out on the grass with the physiotherapy team and then ten days modified training or ten
04:32 days building up into full training then he'll be ready to go. That's the head of schedule
04:35 is it? Yeah it's about right and it's a tough one, it was a significant injury and it's
04:42 easy to forget that that was now back at Wigan which he's just flown by, it seems like it
04:48 wasn't too far ago but it was back at Wigan so he's had a bit of time to recover and recoup
04:52 but yeah he's about on schedule. I suppose with the FA Cup game coming up as well he's
04:57 not going to miss that many league games for you? No and that's obviously a real positive,
05:02 he'll miss all of the, he'll miss the three league games next week without a doubt and
05:06 then after that we'll see what it looks like with the FA Cup game and then the Football
05:10 League trophy, game straight away as well and whether he's back for the league game
05:15 prior to the possible internationals, again after that I don't know, we'll have to see
05:20 and monitor the situation. And the other injuries you've got? Yeah the other injuries, Tom Lowry
05:26 again progressing really well, he's been out on the grass every day with the physiotherapy
05:30 team, we're looking to get him back into some sort of modified training possibly at the
05:34 back end of next week, if not at the back end of next week then after the Reading game
05:38 and that'll be good so he'll build up into full training so we're not too far away with
05:43 Tom now, most likely looking at nothing this month in terms of return to training but certainly
05:51 you know coming along really nicely and that's real positive for him. Anthony Scully coming
05:56 along nicely, everything to plan, everything according to schedule, not out on the training
06:00 pitch yet but that's absolutely fine, supposed to still be in the gym. I think the other
06:05 long term one Josh Dockrell, again we're still thinking, not in the embryonic stages anymore
06:13 but we're still moving towards him, working really hard on the bike, he hasn't been out
06:18 on the grass yet but he's working incredibly hard on the bike, incredibly hard in the gym,
06:22 making sure he builds himself up to full fitness pretty soon. With Anthony Scully, what's
06:26 the time frame you're looking at with him? I think realistically with Anthony we'll probably
06:32 be looking at mid to late December with him so again it's a really difficult one with
06:40 meniscus surgery when you do actually go in and have the surgery, everything was I think
06:46 as expected so it was no worse than we thought it was but again surgery is always significant,
06:51 making sure we build the knee back up, we don't put any extra pressure on him to come
06:55 back quickly so if there's any problems he has with anything else, we're happy with the
06:59 meniscus, we're happy with where that is but always when you come back from any injury
07:02 like that sometimes you risk doing other things so we want to make sure that's right for Anthony.
07:06 I know things change with injury comebacks, a while ago we were talking about how Scully
07:11 and Lowry wouldn't play in 2023, is that still the case? I think Tom should be back sooner
07:17 than that and a testament to him in terms of the work he's done in the gym so with Anthony
07:22 I think we're still looking at the longer term and maybe the back end of the year but
07:26 certainly with Tom if we can get him back training, if we can get him back training
07:31 or some modified training the first couple of weeks of November then I suspect that we
07:35 might be able to see him before the new year. Ok and Josh Martin is still around the place
07:41 isn't he? Yeah Josh is still around, he's training with us, he's been great, really
07:45 really good young lad, nothing's changed in terms of our situation with the squad at the
07:48 moment so we are always monitoring that and he is doing well, he is a good player there's
07:55 no doubt about that and we'll just keep monitoring that situation as long as Josh wants to train
07:58 with us I think he's welcome to do so. And yeah always with an eye if anything changes
08:03 for us but also to keep him ticking over if anyone else wants to come in and swoop, hopefully
08:10 not one of our rivals but he's a really good kid and if there is something out there for
08:16 him and nothing opens up here then I'm sure he'll do well somewhere. Have you sort of
08:20 clarified with him whether there is something for him here or not? Yeah he knows the situation
08:24 and I think he's just been unfortunate with the fact that he's come in during the period
08:28 where we're playing quite well and also we're settled with the squad in terms of where we
08:33 are we don't feel there's any sort of extra space at the moment we're looking at the squad
08:38 at the weekend and there's probably going to, there might be three senior pros that
08:42 are missing out on a place in the squad so we don't want to inflate that for the sake
08:45 of it we want to be sensible and we'll always bring players in if and when we feel it's
08:50 necessary but at the moment we think the balance of the squad is quite good. So he's quite
08:54 happy just training and keeping his fitness up in the meantime I suppose? Yeah training
08:57 I think in a good competitive environment keeping his fitness up seeing what happens
09:01 things might change quickly here and things might change quickly somewhere else so I think
09:04 he's got to keep himself prepared and he's been great to have around the place so it's
09:08 no problem having him here. Have you ruled out him staying here permanently? No not at
09:12 all because you never know like I said you never know what's going to change with injuries,
09:17 suspensions all of those sort of things so I wouldn't rule that out but at the same time
09:21 you know we've like I've said here in the press and like I've said to Josh we're not
09:24 looking to add anything to the squad at the moment so as it stands we're satisfied with
09:28 where we are. In the January window is Winger a position you'll be looking at? At the moment
09:36 if we've got Anthony back in January then we'll be sort of up to our full complement
09:42 of four wide players which we think is a good position to be in so yeah at the moment we're
09:48 happy with where we are again you never know what's going to happen sort of injury wise
09:52 and you've got to keep an eye on that but yeah as it stands in January we're satisfied
09:58 and really happy with the four wingers we've got. Thank you very much.