Former Sunderland defender ready to turn the tide on Portsmouth injury woes as he looks to establish his Fratton Park career

The 24-year-old also explained the difficulties in trying to break back into Danny Cowley’s League One starting XI now he’s back to full fitness.

The left-back has been plagued by injuries since he swapped the Stadium of Light for Fratton Park in January.

Despite starting his first nine games for the Blues, Hume wasn’t seen again for the rest of last term after picking up a back injury in March.

This saw a delayed start to his pre-season preparations before sustaining a calf issue during his rehabilitation.

With two significant injuries in recent months, the defender was slowly integrated back into the squad in August in a bid to eliminate further problems.

The ex-Sunderland man has since started three games for the Blues this season - all of which coming in the Papa John’s Trophy.

Hume now insists he is now over the worst of the issues and has set his sights on becoming a League One regular.

He told The News: ‘The last two games I’ve played, I managed to play the full 90 minutes and come off feeling good. That’s definitely the biggest positive for me.

‘I’m now looking to build on that and force my way into the team and try to play as many games as I can until the end of the season.

‘I’ve been fit for quite a while now, I think it’s been around three months which has been really good. Touch wood I haven’t had any problems.

‘That is now four or five games I’ve featured in cup competitions this season and the main thing is that I have come away and not had any issues.

‘I just want to build on that, keep training well and keep playing well when I do get the opportunity and build on that for the rest of the campaign.’

Hume is yet to start a League One fixture this term with Connor Ogilvie Cowley’s favoured option at left-back.

The Blues have kept five clean sheets in the league this term and Hume explains the difficulties in trying to break into the starting XI.

‘I think we’ve got a really good squad,’ he added.

‘Obviously the boys had a really good start to the season and have now been on the back of a couple of frustrating results recently, but we’ve got a lot of quality in the defence.

‘There’s a lot of options there so when you do get the opportunity to play, you’ve got to take that and do what you can to stay in the team.’