Argyle's Hazard 'touch and go' for start of season

Conor Hazard played 29 times for Plymouth Argyle in all competitions last season

Plymouth Argyle goalkeeper Conor Hazard faces a race against time to be fit for the start of the season.

The 27-year-old injured knee ligaments playing in Northern Ireland's 2-1 friendly loss to Denmark in Copenhagen last month.

Hazard - who joined the Pilgrims from Celtic two years ago - missed four months of last season after undergoing ankle surgery in September.

He has been wearing a brace on his knee during Argyle's pre-season tour to Austria.

With Dan Grimshaw's move to Norwich City, Hazard is the only goalkeeper on the Pilgrims' books to have played a first-team game.

Former Fulham goalkeeper Luka Ashby-Hammond has been on trial with the the club in recent days.

"It'll be touch and go for sure," head coach Tom Cleverley said.

"It's one of those things that in the latter stages of wearing a brace you have quite a lot of freedom within that.

"Conor is at the stage where he's ready to do a bit of training on the pitch in a very controlled situation.

"It's someone that we're all eager to get back as quick as possible whilst not taking too much risk."