PLYMOUTH Albion centre Matt Hopper is seeking further medical advice this week on the ankle injury that has plagued him since April.

Last season's Herald readers' player-of-the-year injured his ankle in Albion's defeat to the Cornish Pirates on April 12.

It was initially feared he might have broken something but X-rays ruled that out.

He later underwent scans which also came back clear.

However, the injury is still bothering Albion's joint top try scorer for 2008-09.

And he was not fit enough to feature in their opening Championship game against Birmingham-Solihull last Saturday.

The only rugby Hopper has played since April 12 was when he featured for half-an-hour in Albion's 75-0 pre-season victory over Sidmouth.

Hopper went to see a specialist on Monday and he will go again tomorrow.

"He's going for a second opinion," said Albion's chairman of rugby Graham Dawe.

"The injury is a bit of a mystery.

"The original scans were fine. There did not seem to be any damage as such.

"But he has been suffering a bit of pain when he trains and we just want to find out what is causing it."

Meanwhile, Dawe has confirmed that centre Jaime Nava de Olano has returned to Spain.

However, the Albion boss has not ruled out a return to the Championship club for Nava de Olano in the future.

Nava de Olano spent two weeks training with the team and did appear in some of the team photographs.

He was also at the match on Saturday against Birmingham.

The Spaniard, however, was unable to feature as he was not registered in time.

Dawe, though, is giving little away about the Spaniard's future at Albion.

"Jaime flew back to Spain on Sunday," said Dawe.

And when asked if he would be returning to Brickfields, the Albion boss said: "We'll have to wait and see."