Plymouth wait on extent of Pepple's eye injury
A first-half eye injury forced Bim Pepple out of the game
- Published
Plymouth Argyle boss Tom Cleverley is unsure how serious striker Bim Pepple's eye injury is.
The 23-year-old forward gave Argyle an 11th-minute lead in their 4-1 home loss to Lincoln City in League One.
It was the striker's fourth goal in six games as he continues his impressive recent form with top scorer Lorent Tolaj still out with a dead leg.
But the 23-year-old summer signing had to come off after a clash of heads towards the end of the first half.
The incident is the latest blow to Cleverley as the club's injury crisis continues.
Argyle are already without seven players including Tolaj, Bradley Ibrahim, Julio Pleguezuelo, Conor Hazard and Brendan Galloway
"He's getting better and better every week with confidence, with game time, with the belief from everybody that we have in him," said Cleverley.
"It's just such a shame that we lost him, it's a bad facial injury.
"He lost vision in one eye, not from damage to the eye, but the eye just completely closed up.
"So we're hoping that that can settle down by next week.
"I don't think there's any damage to the eye.
"I'm not sure if there needs to be any stitches put in when the swelling goes down yet."
Tom Cleverley's side have lost their last two games - having been unbeaten in their previous seven
Cleverley was unhappy with how his side capitulated in the second half against Lincoln City
Having taken an early lead the Pilgrims went into half-time at 1-1.
But the Imps, who are second in the third tier, blew Argyle away after the break as Plymouth dropped to 15th place after a second successive loss.
"We came completely away from what's made us successful recently," added Cleverley, whose side had been on a seven-game unbeaten run before losing at Stockport County last week.
"That is to be a little bit more vertical, a little bit more forward-thinking, maybe a little bit more direct at times, and the structure that we do that from is really key to it.
"We completely came away from that, we were playing in such an open shape, and then playing purposeless passes along the bottom line, the back line, creating turnover moments like their second goal.
"It not only makes the opposition more effective, it makes us look much less effective.
"I've got a week to make sure everyone's educated, everyone's on the same page on why we've been so successful for 10 games and today we looked back to what it was at the start of the season in the second half."
