Lassana Diarra – strongly linked with a January move to Manchester City – may not play much before then after suffering a bad sprain of his ankle at West Ham.

Diarra was forced off the pitch at Upton Park after 19 minutes after badly damaging his ankle and manager Tony Adams believes the midfielder is set for lengthy absence. .

Losing the talented Frenchman is terrible news for Pompey, who say they now have no choice but to allow him to go Paris as he has been called up for the friendly with Uruguay. .

Adams said: ‘We've done well because we were without Sol Campbell and Niko Kranjcar and then lost Diarra, although it was an entire accident. .

‘The big shame is that we've got to send Lassana over to France for their friendly international next week. .

‘We are not allowed to pull him out but hopefully the French doctors will see the extent of the injury. I'm not happy he's got to get on a plane with it, though.’ .

Weekend reports say Manchester City have all but agreed a £10m deal with Pompey for Diarra, although Adams has said he will quit if he is forced to sell players he wants to keep.

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