Portsmouth managed a 3-2 victory away at Walsall last night, surviving a late  to remain in touch with the automatic promotion spots.

Their bid for a Championship place has faltered of late and they're surely destined for a play-off place and no more, but the win kept them in the hunt for the top two, albeit mathematically.

They managed to defeat the Saddlers without star player Ronan Curtis, the victim of a freak injury that could rule him out of their Wembley date with Sunderland.

Curtis was preparing to meet his teammates for the game yesterday when a gust of wind trapped his finger in a door, severing the tip.

Instead of pulling on the blue shirt, he spent his evening in surgery having the fingertip re-attached, as reported by portsmouth.co.uk.

"Ronan trapped his finger in the door, it is quite serious and needed surgery to stitch it back on," boss Kenny Jackett said.

"It happened at home. It was windy down in Portsmouth yesterday morning believe it or not and the wind caught the door as he was leaving his house to meet up with us. According to his mum, the top of the finger was hanging off and they sewed it back on with plastic surgery."

The accident means Curtis is unlikely to feature this weekend against Scunthorpe and may be a doubt for the clash with Shrewsbury too.

The Verdict

This is such a big blow for Portsmouth. Curtis has been a key player for them, scoring 11 times in the league.

He must be gutted, picking up one of those household injuries we could all get. It's happened before, Dave Beasant broke a foot trying to control a jar of salad cream once.

That won't be of any comfort to the 22-year-old, who will likely also have to pull out of the Eire squad.