Plymouth Argyle striker Bim Pepple overcame a nasty looking injury to score in his side’s impressive 4-0 victory away at Blackpool.
The 23-year-old had deputised for the injured Lorent Tolaj – who missed the previous three games with a dead leg – before the Swiss returned to the matchday squad for the trip to Bloomfield Road.
After being withdrawn at half-time in the defeat by Lincoln City last time out following a clash of heads, Pepple was not going to let his starting place go without a fight and has now scored five league goals since Christmas.
He bravely put his head in where it hurt for Argyle’s second goal on Saturday before the Pilgrims’ lead was further extended when midfielder Malachi Boateng turned in a third before the break – effectively putting the match to bed.
Canadian Pepple was deemed available for the Blackpool match after passing the EFL’s head injury protocols.
“I asked during the [Lincoln] game, because I felt good, ‘can I just play with one eye? can I cover it?'” he told BBC Radio Devon.
“But the rules don’t allow you to do it so my next focus was just get the swelling down, get the eye opening up and icing it.
“I got it checked – there was no damage in the eye – it looks bad but I felt good.
“As soon as I knew that if I can get that eye open and that I could play – I kept icing it and icing it and thankfully it opened up and I was able to play. Eventually the bruising will go down.
“As long as I can physically move my body, I’m always going to try and be on the pitch for my teammates because they’d do the same for me.”
