Murphy fit to start for Pompey against Blues

Portsmouth boss John Mousinho has confirmed that winger Josh Murphy is fit to start Saturday's away game against Birmingham City (15:00 BST).

The 30-year-old missed six league games with an ankle injury but did feature from the bench in their 1-0 loss to Stoke City.

Forward Harvey Blair is participating in training but is not being rushed back, while summer signing Franco Umeh is unlikely to make his first appearance for the side any time soon.

The winger joined from Crystal Palace in September but was already nursing a hamstring issue from pre-season training with the Premier League side.

"We signed Franco when he did have an injury, but that's the trade-off to get one of the brightest young talents in the Under-21s programme," Mousinho told BBC Radio Solent.

"We are, unfortunately, not going be able to get the finished article that's ready for first-team football at a higher level. We've taken that risk, we are fully aware of it and I'm just laying that down to demonstrate that it's going to take a while."

Murphy's reintroduction to the starting line-up would be widely welcomed, with striker Callum Lang also sidelined with a hamstring issue.

"If you look at that profile of player in terms of the pace and power at the top end of the pitch that those four [Murphy, Lang, Blair and Umeh] give us, we've had to shuffle the deck a bit," Mousinho added.

"I do think it will make a difference when we have different profiles at the top of the pitch. I think that's where we've been struggling this season."

Listen to the full interview with Mousinho and more Portsmouth content on BBC Sounds.