Portsmouth's Luke Brooke-Smith Faces Long Injury Layoff
Portsmouth teenager Luke Brooke-Smith faces a long spell on the sidelines after suffering a serious ankle injury in training that threatens to end his season.
The 18-year-old winger, who joined Pompey in the summer from Wellington Phoenix, dislocated his ankle in what the club have described as a freak incident at the training ground.
Manager John Mousinho, speaking to BBC Radio Solent, laid bare the extent of the damage.
"It's a really unfortunate one, he's suffered a severe ankle dislocation," Mousinho said. Off the back of that, scans revealed a fibula fracture and significant ligament damage.
Staff at the training ground reacted quickly before Brooke-Smith was taken to Queen Alexandra Hospital. He received treatment and was later discharged, but the outlook remains grim for his debut campaign in English football.
"We're going to leave it to settle for a couple of days, but he will go in for surgery after that," Mousinho added, with the club braced for the likelihood that the youngster will miss the rest of the season.
Brooke-Smith has made four appearances for Portsmouth so far this term, including one Championship start, with his other outings coming from the bench. For a player just beginning to find his feet in a new country and a new league, the timing could hardly be crueller.
The winger addressed the incident on his Instagram page, struggling to process the setback.
"No words with how I'm feeling right now," he wrote. "A freak incident in training causing me to dislocate my ankle, break fibula and potential ligament damage.
"As I don't know the severity yet I'm trying my best to stay positive in a really hard time for me. I will work my hardest to get back out on the pitch to play for this amazing club.
"Thank you to all the staff and players for getting around me."
For Portsmouth, it is a blow to their depth and to a long-term project built around emerging talent. For Brooke-Smith, it is the first major test of a young career that had just begun to open up on the south coast.
His season may be over. His fight to make the next one count has already started.
