Tom Cleverley gives Plymouth Argyle injury updates after pre-season opener

Plymouth Argyle were without seven players for their opening pre-season game, the 4-1 win away to Plymouth Parkway, for one reason or another. Five of the Pilgrims' squad have had injury issues, while Mathias Ross was attending a funeral in Denmark and Caleb Watts was ruled out by sickness following the Spanish training camp in Murcia last week. Argyle were captained against Parkway by Wes Harding, with Joe Edwards continuing his recovery from a knee procedure and he is expected to join up with his team-mates in around a fortnight. Jack MacKenzie has been sidelined until around September after close season knee surgery while Ronan Curtis and summer signing Harvey White have been dealing with knee and calf issues and are close to playing again. Another of Argyle's summer recruits, Alex Hartridge, missed out against Parkway due to a tight groin but could feature in the next pre-season game, away to Bath City on July 18. Cleverley said: "Ronan (Curtis) has trained all week, today just came too quick for him. All being well this week he will play at Bath. "Joe Edwards is following a good rehab programme and is probably about two weeks away from joining in with the team. Harvey (White) will be outside and join the team towards the end of next week and Jack MacKenzie a bit longer term. "Alex Hartridge could have played today but I didn't feel the need to risk after a slight groin tightness about five or six days ago. "Caleb Watts was sick. Obviously, when you are travelling so much and you are together so much for a long period of time (in Spain) it can happen, and Mathias Ross was attending a funeral in Denmark." With Hartridge and Ross both absentees for the pre-season opener, Argyle played the first half with Harding and Julio Pleguezuelo as their two centre-backs. Then, for the second period, midfielder Brendan Wiredu lined up in central defence alongside second-year apprentice Sam Hayman. Cleverley added: "I watched Alex and Ronan train this morning with the coaches and both could have played today if it was a league game." The Argyle boss also confirmed there had been no injuries picked up during the victory over Parkway, which came courtesy of goals from Bim Pepple, Michael Baidoo and Owen Oseni, who netted twice. You can read more of our Argyle stories from Plymouth Live by clicking HERE