Wayne Rooney gives Plymouth Argyle injury update ahead of Bristol City trip

Injury-hit Plymouth Argyle are checking out the fitness of defender Lewis Gibson and striker Ryan Hardie ahead of the Championship away game against Bristol City on Saturday.

Hardie has not been involved in the last two matches due to a groin injury, while Gibson did not play when the Pilgrims lost 6-1 at Norwich City on Tuesday night after the recurrence of a thigh problem, although he was still included among the nine substitutes due to how depleted the squad was.

Including Hardie and Gibson, Argyle had nine players who have featured for the first team this season ruled out by injuries, with the others being Ibrahim Cissoko, Joe Edwards (both hamstring), Brendan Galloway, Conor Hazard (both ankle), Muhamed Tijani (hamstring) and Morgan Whittaker (toe), plus apprentice Joe Hatch (knee).

The hope is that Galloway, Hazard and Whittaker will not be out for too much longer, but Cissoko, Edwards, Tijani and Hatch are long-term absentees.

One player likely to be back in the Argyle squad against Bristol City is midfielder Jordan Houghton, who was not involved at Norwich due to a family issue but he trained today and is available for selection.

Gibson returned to action for Argyle when he captained the side in the 2-2 draw with Watford at Home Park last Friday after missing the previous four matches. Now, after having to watch from the bench against Norwich, it is a race against time for the 24-year-old to be available for the Pilgrims' shortest away trip of the season.

Rooney said: "Hopefully he will be fit but we will assess him again tomorrow. Ryan has stepped up a little bit today. Again, we will asses him. Everyone else is still injured."

The Pilgrims' boss added: "We are trying to get to the bottom of why we are getting these injuries. Morgan's was a kick, Brendan's was when he was away on international duty.

"We have looked at training, we have looked at how the team trained over the last few years as well, to see if we are doing anything dramatically different to what was happening, which is not the case. It's very strange we are getting this many injuries and it's unfortunate because they are to a lot of key players as well."

On how difficult he was finding it to deal with injuries to so many of his players, Rooney said: "That's why you have a squad and it's an opportunity for players to come in and go and show themselves, and try to stay in the team.

"Certainly on Tuesday night they didn't do that. I will make changes for the game on Saturday but some players will have to go again because we haven't got the players available to change all of them."

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