Plymouth Argyle are assessing the severity of the hamstring injury suffered by Mustapha Bundu during the 4-0 Boxing Day defeat away to Coventry City.
Wayne Rooney's Pilgrims were without six injured players against Coventry - Ibrahaim Cissoko, Joe Edwards, Ryan Hardie, Michael Obafemi, Muhamed Tijani and Morgan Whittaker - and it was seven if you include 18-year-old apprentice striker Joe Hatch, who made his first team debut in the Championship match at Burnley earlier this season.
Now Bundu, who had a goal and an assist in Argyle's 3-3 draw with Middlesbrough at Home Park last Saturday, has become the latest addition to the lengthy casualty list, and after a spell where he had been playing some of his best football since signing for the club at the end of the 2023 summer transfer window.
The Sierra Leone international picked up his knock late in the first half against Coventry, by which time the home side were already leading 2-0, when he stretched for the ball in a 50-50 challenge. After being checked out on the pitch, Bundu was able to walk slowly off it to the away dug-out, with substitute Callum Wright sent on as his replacement.
Rooney said: "He felt his hamstring. We will have to assess that over the next couple of days." And on Argyle's injury list he added: "We have had it for a while, the last few months really, so not ideal but we have to dig in."
The number and regularity of Argyle injuries has been a recurring theme of their 2024/25 campaign and for a team that is struggling at the bottom of the Championship with only one win in their last 13 matches, and none in the last eight, it is making life ever more difficult.
Rooney said: "We have had them all season and we have been looking into why that is - the length of time of training sessions, the intensity of training sessions - which is all fine.
"We are very unfortunate with the injuries we are picking up. We are going through a tough period. We have to dig in and try and get out of it."
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