Portsmouth's Luke Brooke-Smith Faces Surgery After Ankle Injury

Portsmouth’s bright young winger Luke Brooke-Smith is facing the prospect of missing the rest of the season after suffering a serious ankle injury in training.

The 18-year-old, who joined Pompey in the summer from Wellington Phoenix, dislocated his ankle in what head coach John Mousinho described as a “really unfortunate” incident at the club’s training ground.

Speaking to BBC Radio Solent, Mousinho laid out the grim extent of the damage.

“He’s suffered a severe ankle dislocation,” he said. “Off the back of that, there is a fracture on his fibula and significant ligament damage.”

Staff reacted quickly on site, stabilising the injury before Brooke-Smith was taken to Queen Alexandra Hospital. He has since been discharged, but the real work – and the long wait – now begins.

“We’re going to leave it to settle for a couple of days,” Mousinho added. “But he will go in for surgery after that.”

For a teenager just beginning to find his feet in English football, the timing could hardly be crueller. Brooke-Smith has made four appearances for Portsmouth so far this campaign, including one start in the Championship, with three further outings from the bench. Each cameo hinted at raw pace and promise, a young winger learning the tempo of a new league and a new country.

Now that progress has been brutally halted.

Brooke-Smith addressed the setback on his Instagram page, struggling to put the blow into words.

“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.”

The message captured both the shock of the moment and the determination that will now define his season. The medical picture should become clearer after surgery, but the nature of the injury and Mousinho’s assessment underline how steep the road back will be.

For Portsmouth, it is a blow to squad depth and to a long-term project built around emerging talent. For Brooke-Smith, it is the first major test of a young career – one that will now be measured not in minutes played, but in how strongly he returns when the ankle finally heals.