Swindon Town captain Ollie Clarke is looking at an extended period on the sidelines after he picked up an ankle injury during training last week.

Ahead of Town’s trip to Accrington, Ian Holloway revealed that Clarke had badly twisted his ankle during training and would need a scan to assess how bad the injury was.

Having said that he would need to cleanse Swindon’s Beversbrook training base because of the bad luck the club were experiencing, Holloway revealed that it would be four weeks out for Clarke, meaning that he misses this pivotal run of games against sides towards the bottom of the table.

 

 

He said: “He has ruptured a tendon on the outside of his ankle because he landed so awkwardly.

“He was looking crazily fantastic in a different position that I put him in and I think that he would have won some of those headers and knocked them sideways as he went and smashed them.

“I was going to put him slightly further back and I am absolutely devastated [by his injury].”

Having been brought in for his first start since league August against Milton Keynes Dons last week, Rosaire Longelo was missing from the squad at Accrington and Holloway said that was due to his fitness.

Longelo started at Stadium MK with George Cox missing out on the squad for “tactical reasons” but he was back involved and was a half-time substitute at The Wham Stadium.

After not including him in his first League Two squad, Holloway revealed that he had spoken with Cox about it and he could easily have started on Saturday.

He said: “That [Longelo's absence] was absolutely fitness-related. They have all done my run and the poor lad was really struggling on it.

“I shouldn’t have really played him last week, if I had done my run first then I wouldn’t have done.

“He needs a top-up, so that is where he is, I have got no problem with his ability in any way, shape or form.

“He needs a top-up and that is why I have left him off.

“[George] Cox, I have had a chat with him, he didn’t start because I wanted to do something and get [Sean] McGurk in there but we couldn’t do it so I put a proper left wing-back on.

“I am not mad, I know what I am trying to achieve and I thought that there was a weakness in there but there was not.”