The Walking Wounded

...but hopes to be able to welcome back at least two of them when new Sky Bet League Two leaders Doncaster Rovers visit Home Park this Saturday. 

Jordan Slew was serving a one-game suspension against the Exiles, so comes back into the fold, and he may be joined by Ben Purrington. The left-back has been sidelined with a hamstring injury and has missed the left three Argyle matches. 

Nauris Bulvitis, Arnold Garita and David Ijaha are all progressing from their respective knocks, but Derek does not foresee them being available for Rovers’ visit. 

Derek said: “We had eight out on Saturday through injury and suspension. That is a lot in a squad of 24 with three goalkeepers. We have Jordan Slew back on Saturday, and hopefully we can get the others back as soon as possible. Will be it be Saturday? I’m not sure yet, but they are working their way back to fitness. 

“We’ll look at Ben over the next few days. He’s been out for a couple of weeks now, but it wasn’t as bad as we had feared. We’ll just monitor his progress.

“Nauris is still out. He played against Morecambe, and has a hamstring injury now because it’s moved up from the calf into that side of the leg. He’s progressing well, we are hopeful he will back training sometime next week. 

“Nauris is probably behind Ben, but they are both back in with the physio. Bulvitis will definitely not be fit for Saturday, not sure about Purrington yet. [Ijaha] will hopefully be training next week. 

“[Arnie's] got a knee problem; he had that at Bristol City before, and he’s gone back to Bristol City to get a scan on his knee. That was the reason he missed out on Saturday. It’s too early to say [when he will be fit], we’ve just got to wait to hear from Bristol City before we can make a judgment. He had the scan late on Monday, so we’re just waiting for the results.”

Derek also had some updates on a couple of longer-term absentees inching their way back towards the fold. 

“Ryan Brunt’s not [close]. He’s on the anti-gravity machine, has just started to run on that this week. He then need to come off that, get his fitness levels up, and have no reaction to that. I said a while ago that he was behind schedule, and he still is. 

“Gary Sawyer is going to see the consultant today, to see how he is progressing – it is eight weeks since his operation. We’ll get a better idea after today how close he is to returning to training.”