Port Vale v Plymouth preview

Team news ahead Saturday's League Two clash between Port Vale and Plymouth Argyle at Vale Park.

Marc Richards will continue to play through the pain barrier for Port Vale.

Richards has been plagued by a troublesome ankle injury all season but the striker is delaying having the operation he requires until the club's injury list begins to ease.

Midfielders Ryan Burge (knee) and Lewis Haldane (broken leg) and striker Tom Pope (groin) will continue to miss out while defenders Gareth Owen (arm) and Lee Collins (ankle) remain huge doubts.

"Marc has been playing in pain all the time but he just gets on with it. He knows the situation with the injuries we've got," Vale assistant manager Mark Grew told the club's official website. "It would be easy for him to just go and have the operation but he is not doing that, he is determined to play as many games as he can.

"Marc will play until it stops him. It has stopped him before because there is damage in there, but it helps that we are not playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday at the moment.

"We have given Marc a couple of days off this week to let him have a rest before he trains again towards the end of the week."

Plymouth are sweating over the fitness of captain Simon Walton.

The midfielder left Home Park following the 1-1 draw with Crawley last Saturday with his left arm in a sling after a heavy fall and the Pilgrims initially feared the worst for their skipper and top scorer.

However, a midweek scan revealed no bone damage, as Walton revealed on Twitter: "Just a standard dislocation. Training Thursday, hopefully."

Should Walton not be fit, Argyle may call on Conor Hourihane, who is available to manager Carl Fletcher once again after serving a two-match ban.

Full-back Paul Bignot and striker Craig Sutherland play the last match of their respective loan spells from Blackpool this weekend while forward Nick Chadwick is struggling with a hamstring injury.