Plymouth Argyle investigating injury crisis ahead of Portsmouth clash as Wayne Rooney promises changes

Wayne Rooney is trying to get to the bottom of Plymouth Argyle’s injury crisis ahead of Tuesday night’s crunch Championship meeting with Portsmouth at Home Park.

Argyle’s joint-top-scorer Ibrahim Cissoko is the latest blow after being ruled out with a hip problem until January. The 21-year-old has already undergone surgery. Joe Edwards, Lewis Gibson, Brendan Galloway Conor Hazard and Muhamed Tijani were already ruled out of the midweek clash with the Blues. Captain Edwards is also out until 2025 in a further blow to Plymouth. Speaking ahead of the clash with Pompey, Rooney admitted he was baffled by the number of injuries his side is facing and claimed it is the worst spate of issues he has faced on the availability front since stepping into management.

He told Argyle TV: “I’m not going to sit here and complain about injuries - they happen. We are looking at different things, trying to figure out why. I have never had this amount of injuries or players with muscles injuries in any of the clubs I have been at. We are looking at reasons why to see if we can get to the bottom of it and hopefully we can. We are losing too many players at the minute. You hope some of the players, who are coming into the team because other players have been injured, will be holding their head up high and say ‘right this is my opportunity to show that I deserve to be in the team.’ One player’s loss or disappointment in being injured is another player’s opportunity. The lads who have come into the team have to take that chance.”

Plymouth were beaten 3-0 at Leeds United on Saturday afternoon with all the goals coming in the first half for the home side. Morgan Whittaker was a surprise exclusion from the starting line-up but Rooney revealed he made that decision with the clash against Pompey in mind. The 23-year-old winger had played in the club’s previous 12 Championship games scoring three goals.

Asked why Whittaker was excluded at Elland Road, Rooney said: “I am looking at the Portsmouth game. We felt we could go and get something at Leeds with the way we set up. But I was looking at players to be fresh for the game against Portsmouth. There will be other players who come back into the starting line-up [on Tuesday] to try and help us win the game. I looked at the two games [Leeds and Portsmouth] and felt if we could get three points out of that run then we’d be pleased with that. The Portsmouth one I felt was a more winnable game.”

Pompey are also facing a spate of injury problems as they seek the victory that would move them off the bottom of the Championship table and above Plymouth. Tuesday’s game kicks off at 8pm and will be shown live on Sky Sports Football.