Miron Muslic is hoping goalkeeper Conor Hazard will be available for Plymouth Argyle’s next Championship match, against Queens Park Rangers at Home Park on Saturday, despite him being ruled out of the 1-1 draw with Oxford United last night due to injury.
Hazard had started four successive games since returning to the team following ankle ligament damage, and kept back-to-back clean sheets, but he was a fitness doubt for the visit of Oxford and Muslic decided not to take any chances with him.
Instead, Dan Grimshaw was back between the posts for the Pilgrims and he made a couple of good saves in second half stoppage time, both from Siriki Dembele, to prevent Oxford from grabbing a late winning goal.
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Muslic said about Hazard after the game: “He’s injured and he wasn’t 100 per cent fit. I had a very good conversation yesterday with him and the risk was just too high if we put him today on the pitch that we lose him for maybe several weeks.
“We are right now in a situation where we need every single player. That was not a final today, we still have a lot of games and as head coach I need to be calm and think mid-term, not only the next game, otherwise we will lose players for weeks and we cannot afford this.
“We also missed (Ryan) Hardie today and Jordan (Houghton) was not able to have any session with us so we have some injury difficulties, we are struggling there. That’s why it will be important to maximise our recovery.”
Muslic added about Hazard: “I think with our decision today hopefully he will return in a couple of days and be available for Saturday, and also for the upcoming weeks.”
Argyle announced yesterday afternoon that experienced third choice ‘keeper Marko Marosi had left the club at the end of his short-term contract. It later emerged he had joined League One outfit Cambridge United on a deal for the rest of the season.
With his departure, combined with the injury to Hazard, it meant 20-year-old Zak Baker was the goalkeeping cover on the bench for Grimshaw against Oxford. When asked whether he would look to add another ‘keeper to his squad, Muslic said: “I think with Conor and Daniel we are okay.”
Meanwhile, Muslic confirmed defender Kornel Szucs had also missed the match against Oxford due to an injury and could be out for a couple of weeks.
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