Plymouth Argyle's Injury Woes: Alex Hartridge Out for a Month

Plymouth Argyle have been dealt a significant defensive setback with Alex Hartridge facing up to a month on the sidelines after damaging ankle ligaments.

The 27-year-old, a free-transfer arrival in the summer, picked up the injury late on in Saturday’s 3-2 win at Doncaster Rovers after coming off the bench. Scans have since confirmed ligament damage, leaving Argyle without a defender who had quietly become one of Tom Cleverley’s most reliable picks.

Hartridge had featured in every Argyle game this season and made an immediate impact, scoring on his debut in the Carabao Cup against former club Exeter City. Now, just as he was bedding into the back line, he joins a treatment room that is starting to look uncomfortably busy.

He is the latest name on a list that already includes Michael Baidoo, Malachi Boateng and Jack MacKenzie. Baidoo is out until November with a hamstring problem, while Boateng and MacKenzie are also sidelined.

“It’s another unfortunate one,” head coach Tom Cleverley told BBC South West, his frustration clear. “It’s one of those things, it happens in football. We’ve got four boys out at the minute, Macca is one we’ve carried from last year and two from innocuous challenges with Alex and Malachi.

“They’re not load management, they’re not staffing problems, they’re just part and parcel of a contact sport.”

Cleverley did, however, point to Baidoo’s situation as one the club will study more closely.

“Michael Baidoo’s the one that we can review and analyse how we can manage better, or the player can manage better,” he said. “But the injury numbers have been very pleasing and three out of the four we have got out have been either carried over from last season or contact knocks.”

Argyle have started the campaign with momentum and goals. Now they will have to show they can also ride out an early-season storm, reshaping a defence that has just lost one of its ever-presents.