Tony Pulis has been pleased with Hodges' effort to regain his fitness. "He has done really well and I might get him involved over the next two to three weeks", he said. "He has trained well and I may put him on the bench and been him on over the next five games".
It turns out that Hodges could be involved much sooner than expected with several Argyle players suffering from a flu bug sweeping through Home Park. Key men David Norris, Hasney Aljofree and Bojan Djordjic have all missed training in the run-up to the Pilgrims trip to Ninnian Park on Boxing Day. "We've got three or four who are not very well at the moment", Tony Pulis remarked, "I'm frightened to death of waking up on Monday morning and it's six or seven". He added that hopes it all clears up in time for the Cardiff game, fully aware that his small squad cannot afford very many absentees.
In the build-up to a big match, catch a news round-up in the Editor's Column...