Ollie Clarke and Grant Hall could be in line to return for Swindon Town next weekend having missed the last two games through injury.

Town have been without their captain and veteran centre-back for the last two games against Newport County and Carlisle United after the pair had to go off during the first half against Barrow AFC.

Clarke came off after 25 minutes at the SO Legal Stadium after feeling a tight calf and Hall went down following Ged Garner’s opening goal, the five starts that the defender has made this season means he has already played more for Swindon than he did for Rotherham United last season.

The pair had both started every league game up to that point as part of the new experienced spine that Swindon brought in over the summer and Mark Kennedy they should be back and involved in training ahead of the trip to Port Vale.

He said: “Ollie and Grant are imminent, they should be training next week, what part of the week I don’t know but they should be back in full training.”

Ryan Delaney has also been missing since making his return to league action at Barrow when he got an extended run off the bench due to the injury to Hall.

The news was less positive for him as Kennedy said that he had yet to find out exactly how far away he was and would be getting an update next week on his progress.

Swindon were also without Harry Smith as he served the second game of his three-match ban for his sending-off at Barrow two weeks ago, meaning he will also miss Port Vale.

Kennedy felt that it was exactly his profile that his side were missing as they looked to break down the deep defence of Carlisle.

He said: “The one thing that we really missed today was the target man, somebody like Harry, I thought he was a big loss for us today.

“I thought that was pretty evident but such is life because Harry is suspended and rightly so.

“I thought that our dominance of the ball pinned them back and then it is about finding different ways and my only disappointment about today was that we need to find a way to unlock doors.

“There were a couple of things that we tried tactically within that but if ever there was a day for Harry Smith then today was that day and we didn’t have that option.”