‘No brushing it under the carpet’: Portsmouth boss delivers Jordan Williams injury promise
John Mousinho has pledged Pompey will finally get to the bottom of Jordan Williams’ wretched injury problems.
The 25-year-old was recruited from Barnsley last summer to replace Joe Rafferty as first-choice right-back following promotion to the Championship.
However, the luckless newcomer featured just 23 times in his maiden Fratton Park season after being sidelined by injury over four different spells.
A total of three of those absences were caused by a recurring hamstring problem, which eventually cut short Williams’ season by two games following his latest aborted comeback.
Frustratingly, he was an ever-present for Barnsley’s League One campaign the previous year, starting 45 of their 46 league fixtures.
And Pompey are desperate to uncover the issue behind the ongoing injuries.
‘That’s a big priority’
Mousinho told The News: ‘There’s a combination of things we can do. There are going to be some obvious things we can potentially change, but I will leave that to the medical department and Jordan himself.
‘Overall, from my point of view, all we want to do is have him available for those 46 games, that’s the most important thing. That’s the big priority for Jordan, number one is to come back, be fit and be ready to play 46 games.
‘It’s not something we are going to brush under the carpet. With any player, if there is a repeat injury we want to make sure we get on top of it. But there’s not a huge amount for me to get involved in, I pretty much leave it to the experts.
‘I’ve had my own injury problems over the years, I can offer a little advice there, but beyond that that’s just anecdotal. Others are looking into it, trying to find out the answers.
‘Jordan has done really well when he has played – and he will be back for pre-season.’
It wasn’t until the 2-0 defeat at Cardiff in October before Williams experienced his initial injury issues with Pompey, having been forced off at half-time following a challenge by David Turnbull.
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That kept him out for one match – but, upon his return, began the long-stand hamstring issue which would devastate his season.
Three hamstring injuries in five months
Williams collected the injury in the 65th minute of November’s agonising 1-0 defeat at Plymouth, being replaced by Devlin at right-back.
Following eight games out, he was back for first-team duty at the turn of the year and produced a man-of-the-match display against Stoke in mid-January.
However, after resting him to the bench alongside Callum Lang, Josh Murphy and Freddie Potts as a precaution at West Brom, he aggravated his hamstring injury having been introduced as a substitute.
Although Williams completed the match, which ended in a 5-1 defeat, he felt it after the game and would subsequently miss the next 10 fixtures.
