Adam Randell in Plymouth Argyle fitness fight for Portsmouth match

Midfielder Adam Randell will have a late fitness test tomorrow ahead of Plymouth Argyle's bottom-of-the-table Championship match against Portsmouth at Home Park (8pm kick-off).

Randell, 24, missed the 3-0 defeat away to Leeds United on Saturday due to a thigh injury, which opened the way for 19-year-old Caleb Roberts to make his first league start for the Pilgrims. Argyle already know they will be without the injured Ibrahim Cissoko, Joe Edwards, Brendan Galloway, Lewis Gibson, Conor Hazard and Muhamed Tijani for the visit of Portsmouth, who were the 2023/24 League One champions.

However, John Mousinho's side are currently bottom of the Championship, three points behind 22nd-placed Argyle, who have lost three of their last four matches. They drew the other one 3-3 at home to Preston North End after trailing by three goals at one stage.

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On-loan Leeds midfielder Darko Gyabi will return to the Pilgrims' squad against Portsmouth after not being eligible to play against his parent club at the weekend. The likes of Rami Al Hajj, Michael Obafemi and Morgan Whittaker could all be back in the starting line-up after being unused substitutes at Elland Road.

Argyle head coach Wayne Rooney said about Randell this afternoon: "We are giving him every opportunity to try and be in the squad and get on the pitch. We will see how he is in the morning and do a late fitness test.

"It's a little bit of tightness with Rands. He had it in pre-season in his thigh and it has come back again but it's nothing serious. He's a touch and go.

"He has had a scan and it shows there is an issue but not too serious so we are basically going off how he feels. As I said, we will see how he is in the morning and hopefully he can be involved."

Argyle - and Rooney - need some better news over injuries about it emerged that Dutch under-21 international winger Cissoko had joined the casualty list with a groin/hip flexor issue which will require surgery and keep him out of action for a couple of months.

The Pilgrims already know they are likely to be without captain Joe Edwards, their leader on and off the pitch, until the start of 2025 because of a torn hamstring. Edwards hobbled out of their last home game, the 3-3 draw with Preston North End on October 26.

Rooney said: "Joe will be out until January. If you pull your hamstring and you are lucky you are looking at four weeks. He has got a tear and what we are getting told is eight to 10 weeks.

"He's such a huge character for us. I think he started the season really well. He's a leader and unfortunately we are going to miss him now."

The Pilgrims' boss added: "I'm not going to sit here and complain about injuries. They happen. We are looking at different things, trying to figure out why because I have never had this amount of injuries - players with muscle injuries - in any of the clubs I have been at.

"So we are looking at reasons why to see if we can get to the bottom of it, and hopefully we can, because we are losing too many players at the minute."

Edwards is a commanding and popular presence in the Argyle dressing room but Rooney wants the focus of the 34-year-old to be on his recovery from the hamstring injury.

Rooney said: "There is different ways you can try to keep him around the squad but I think the most important thing is he does his rehab and gets back as soon as he can. If there is opportunities where we can with us to games and he can be around the team and be around the coaches, of course I would love to do that with him."

With Argyle on a four-game winless run and injuries mounting all the time it is proving to be a challenging time for Rooney and his players.

He said: "Some of the players are coming into the team because players have been injured. You hope they will hold their head up high and say 'Right, this is my opportunity, I'm going to show you I deserve to be in the team and I'm going to stay in the team.

"As I have said before, one player's disappointment in being injured is another player's opportunity and the lads that who come into the team have to take that. I felt Caleb did really well in the game (against Leeds).

"He was the stand-out for me of the players who came into the team. I think the other players have to do more. It's as simple as that. Of course, it was a difficult game but they have to do more to show me they deserve to be in the team every week."

Whittaker was Argyle's last remaining ever present in the Championship this season until he was left out of the team by Rooney as he opted for a defensive line-up at high-flying Leeds but the talented attacker will return against Portsmouth.

Rooney said: "We felt we could go there and be resilient, and get something out of Leeds with the set-up. I was looking at players to be available and fresh for tomorrow night (against Portsmouth). Not just Morgan, it was other players as well, who will come back into the starting line-up to try to help us win the game."

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