Ronan Curtis: Fully Fit and Ready for Plymouth Argyle

Ronan Curtis has parked the painkillers and the doubts. Now he just wants minutes, goals and a full season in Plymouth Argyle green.

The 30-year-old winger, who made his move from Port Vale permanent in January, went under the knife in the summer to finally fix a lingering meniscus problem. It was an issue he first picked up in last year’s pre-season, one he stubbornly played through as he tried to establish himself at Home Park.

“The knee's good,” he told BBC South West, a simple verdict after a complicated year.

Curtis managed 23 appearances in all competitions for Argyle last season, scoring twice, all while nursing that slight tear. He pushed on through the discomfort, managing the pain week to week, game to game, as the joint occasionally swelled and the medication count rose.

This summer he drew a line.

“It was something that I needed to get done in the summer because the odd time it would swell up and taking too many tablets to get me through games and stuff like that,” he said. Now, he insists, “I'm all fit and healthy.”

The early evidence backs him up. Curtis has started all five of Argyle’s League One fixtures so far, a sign of trust from the coaching staff and a marker of his own confidence in his body. The Pilgrims have opened the campaign with two wins and two defeats, a mixed start, but Curtis has been a constant presence.

He believes this is only the beginning.

“I got the surgery in the summer… get the surgery and back to my fully fit best now,” he said. “I have all faith in myself to come back stronger, fitter and much better.”

Argyle will expect exactly that. A fully firing Curtis, no longer playing through swelling and painkillers, is a very different prospect to the patched-up version they leaned on last season.