Boss hints Sunderland loanee may have played final game for new club after injury setback

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho has admitted that Sunderland loanee Adil Aouchiche may have played his final game for the club after suffering an injury setback over the weekend.

The French midfielder has spent the second half of the campaign at Fratton Park after being deemed surplus to requirements by Regis Le Bris at the Stadium of Light. Since arriving on the south coast, Aouchiche has featured 12 times for his new club, scoring one goal and assisting another.

In recent days, the 22-year-old also helped Pompey to Championship safety, with Mousinho’s men recording successive victories over Norwich City and Watford on Good Friday and Easter Monday to ensure that they will remain in the second tier ahead of next season.

To that end, Mousinho suggested that Aouchiche’s performance against the Canaries last week was his “best display in a Portsmouth shirt”. His outing against Watford was cut short at half-time, however, and it has since become apparent that the Sunderland may in fact have sustained a season-ending injury to his wrist.

What has Portsmouth boss John Mousinho said about Adil Aouchiche’s injury?

Aouchiche fractured his wrist against Norwich on Good Friday, and was subsequently replaced in the 85th minute. Having started against Watford days later, he was taken off at half-time after struggling with the injury.

As a result, Mousinho has hinted that the Frenchman may not be risked in either of Portsmouth’s final two matches of the campaign, against Sheffield Wednesday and Hull City.

Speaking to local outlet The News on Wednesday, Mousinho explained: “Aouchiche had the fracture previously, he tried to play with it [against Watford] and it just wasn’t right. So I don’t think we’ll see Adil play at the weekend. He’s fine, the injury is the same, it’s just a case of trying to test it to see if can play with it.

“It’s one of those things, it doesn’t obviously affect him football-wise, but he can’t hold players off, can’t properly close players down, can’t really go into challenges and I think that plays on your mind and that starts to affect the playing side as well. I’m not sure we’ll risk him unless he’s 100%.”

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What did John Mousinho say about Adil Aouchiche’s performance against Norwich City?

Speaking after Aouchiche contributed an assist in a 5-3 victory on Good Friday, Mousinho said: “It was Adil’s best game for us by a long way, I said it to Jon [Harley] and Ed [Denton] on the bench. I thought he was excellent.

“He put both bits together. What we’ve seen with Adil is a huge amount of work-rate, which is maybe slightly surprising to some. We knew we were going to get the work-rate, but we’ve got this technical 10 coming in from Sunderland and some from the outside may not have expected that.

“He hasn’t quite put together both the work-rate and the quality on the ball. Maybe there have been a couple of games, particularly against QPR in the second half - and he did it against Norwich.

“He showed that quality on the ball, coming out of tight areas, his work-rate was constant, he was dead on his feet at the end. His numbers were through the roof, but he also gave that edge on the ball.

“Hopefully it will boost his confidence going forward. He’s a confident young lad anyway, he’s been in and out of the side, and we felt it was the right thing to do to bring him back on Friday. I thought he was great.”

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