Peter Crouch, David James and Glen Johnson have all returned unscathed from England duty for Portsmouth’s clash at Hull and Niko Kranjcar has reported no ill-effects after his efforts for Croatia.

Portsmouth are almost certain to be without midfielders Lassana Diarra and Richard Hughes for tomorrow’s Barclays Premier League trip to Aston Villa.

Tottenham’s attempts to block leading scoring Frederic Kanoute playing for Mali in the African Nations Cup later this month have been dashed by FIFA.