Conor Shaughnessy is still some way off a return to Pompey's defence - and this weekend's clash with Coventry looks like it may come too soon for Regan Poole.
The Blues have had no end of injury woes at the back both last season and this and boss John Mousinho has outlined the latest on a number of the casualties.
Talking to portsmouth.co.uk earlier this week, Mousinho said: 'Shocks is okay, we are looking at about three more weeks until he’s back in full training, so early January.
'We will be cautious with him anyway because of the nature of the injury and the fact that, by the time it comes around to January, he will have been out for about five months.
‘When he first came back, he obviously went straight into the team (Sheffield United), but he hadn’t actually been out that long. With the second stint - and having two injuries since then - it’s more important for us to take our time with him.
‘In terms of being ready for the first team, I would probably say, realistically, we’ll then need 2-3 weeks with him on the training pitch. Shocks is a massive player, he started 45 games last season, was in the EFL Team of the Season, the PFA Team of the Season, and was one of the players of the year.
‘On top of all that, he scored some huge goals for us. We have really missed him this season.’
Speaking about Poole, also earlier in the week, ‘Regan hasn’t yet trained this week, I don't think he’ll train on Wednesday, we might look at him Friday. If he’s not ready for Friday, we will scan him and see where he is off the back of that.
‘We are being cautious with Regan because of the nature of the injury and the fact it is on the side where he had the hamstring graft, so we just have to be a bit careful and delicate with that. But we will know a bit more about that on Friday.'
If Poole does not feature against Coventry, it would appear Tom McIntyre will get another start alongside Marlon Pack at the heart of defence.
Mousinho also told The News: ‘No-one else will be back for Coventry. There are a couple that are close in Jordan Williams and Jacob Farrell. Jordan should be back for the Boxing Day game, if not available for the game back in training. Jacob should be back about a week later.’