Portsmouth relegation rivals Plymouth Argyle suffer 'huge' injury blow that will impact Championship survival hopes

The division’s bottom-placed side currently sit six points from safety - despite their win against Pompey heading into the international break - and with just eight games of the season left to play.

Now they’ll have to tackle those remaining fixtures without a key defensive figure and their record signing - Ukraine international centre-back Maksym Talovierov.

Signed from Austrian outfit LASK Linz for a reported £1.7m at the end of the January transfer window, the 24-year-old quickly established himself as a key player under Pilgrims boss Miron Muslic and had been forming an impressive central-defensive partnership with fellow January arrival Nikola Katic.

The duo helped Plymouth record a clean sheet against Premier League leaders Liverpool in the FA Cup and dump them out of the competition, to boot. They also worked hard together to frustrate Pompey on the Pilgrims’ visit to Fratton Park on March 12 - with the visitors recording a 2-1 win to dent the Blues’ survival hopes and give Home Park fans belief that they could mount a great escape.

Plymouth’s 3-2 home defeat to Derby County immediately after their PO4 triumph brought a premature end to those celebrations, though.

And now the battle that awaits them looks so much more tougher, with Talovierov ruled out for the remainder of the season with a knee injury suffered in that loss to the Rams.

Confirming the news ahead of the Pilgrims’ trip to Watford on Saturday, Muslic told Plymouth Live: ‘He (Talovierov) will be out I think for seven to eight weeks, more or less out of the season. It's a huge setback for us.

‘He's very disappointed because the season is over and he can't support us any more. We all know Maksym now in the last two months, he's a fighter, good spirit, top lad, good character.

‘He's very down but this is also an opportunity for him to recover, to heal. He will get the full support of Plymouth Argyle, of all of us, and then he has to bounce back.’

Problems mount for relegation-threatened Plymouth

News of Talovierov’s unavailability adds to a defensive injury crisis at Home Park - something that Pompey can have sympathy with.

Fellow centre-back Brendan Galloway was ruled out for the rest of the season in January after he suffered a leg injury in a 1-1 draw with Oxford.

Meanwhile, Julio Pleguezuelo missed the defeat against Derby after breaking ribs in the PO4 victory against the Blues. That leaves Muslic with only three centre-backs to chose from ahead of Saturday’s game at Vicarage Road - Katic, Victor Palsson and Kornel Szucs.

Forward Muhamed Tijani also remains on the injured list with a hamstring injury. However, Plymouth captain Adam Randell should be back for the Watford game after serving a three-match ban for misconduct.

Pompey currently have central defenders Conor Shaughnessy, Rob Atkinson, Hayden Matthews and Ibane Bowat out injured at present, with the latter two unavailable the remainder of the season. To ease the pressure on their backline, the Blues signed Sweden international free agent Alexander Milosevic, who is in contention to make his debut against Blackburn Rovers on Saturday.

This weekend’s Championship fixtures for teams in relegation mix: Hull v Luton, Watford v Plymouth, Cardiff v Sheffield Wednesday, Leeds v Swansea, Middlesbrough v Oxford United, Pompey v Blackburn Rovers, Stoke v QPR.

For your next Pompey read: Portsmouth boss faces 24-hour wait before he can focus fully on Blackburn Rovers and Championship survival