Plymouth Argyle's Alex Hartridge Faces Month Out Due to Injury

Plymouth Argyle have been dealt a defensive blow 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, having come off the bench to help see the game out. Scans have confirmed ligament damage, leaving Argyle without a player who had quietly become one of Tom Cleverley’s most reliable ever-presents.

Hartridge had featured in every Argyle fixture this season, anchoring the back line and even marking his debut with a goal in the Carabao Cup against former club Exeter City. That early strike felt like the start of a smooth transition. Now he joins a growing queue in the treatment room.

He is the latest name on an increasingly frustrating list. Michael Baidoo is already ruled out until November with a hamstring problem, while Malachi Boateng and Jack MacKenzie are also missing.

“It’s another unfortunate one,” head coach Tom Cleverley told BBC South West, his irritation clear beneath the calm delivery. “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.”

The pattern matters. Cleverley was quick to defend his staff and the club’s workload planning.

“They’re not load management, they’re not staffing problems, they’re just part and parcel of a contact sport,” he said. The message was blunt: this is bad luck, not bad practice.

Baidoo is the exception, the one case Cleverley is determined to probe.

“Michael Baidoo’s the one that we can review and analyse how we can manage better, or the player can manage better,” he added. “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.”

So Argyle must now navigate the next month without a defender who had already embedded himself in the side’s rhythm. With Hartridge out and others still missing, the question is no longer whether this squad has depth on paper, but whether that depth can withstand the grind of an unforgiving season.