MANAGER Phil Brown admits he faces one of his toughest team selections as Swindon Town boss for Saturday’s match at home to Bury in League Two.

Brown must decide whether to recall first-choice goalkeeper Lawrence Vigouroux following his return from international duty or keep faith with Luke McCormick after he registered the team’s first two clean sheets of the season in the Chilean’s absence.

The Town boss must also find cover at right-back as Kyle Knoyle begins a three-game suspension, although trialist Eijin Kishimoto will not provide that after regulations meant the club were unable to pursue a permanent deal for the Japanese player.

James Dunne, Jak McCourt and Joe Romanski are all options to fill the void, as is loanee Luke Woolfenden after switching to the role from centre-back following Knoyle’s dismissal against Morecambe last Saturday.

However, it is more likely that Woolfenden continues his pairing with fellow loanee Sid Nelson in the heart of defence due to ongoing concerns over club captain Olly Lancashire and Dion Conroy.

Conroy will be assessed in training today after suffering with illness amid his comeback from a knee injury, while Lancashire has also sat out training and is expected to miss the Shakers match.

Brown said today: “Olly hasn’t trained on Thursday and I don’t think he’ll train on Friday. I don’t want to delve too far in whether he can or he can’t play. At this moment, I would say Olly is not available.

“Friday is a big day. I haven’t fully made my mind up, I have got my pecking order but the back four could look decidedly different.

“Luke Woolfenden knows the position, but upon meeting the lad for the first time, the question was where he wants to play, and he wants to play centre-back.

“That psychology of wanting to be a number five is a big plus. I don’t want to hurt that, so I am probably staring at the same centre-half partnership and then someone will deputise at right-back.

“I have got two or three options that can go there. I am certainly not going to lose sleep over, I am going to think long and hard about making the right decision.

“I have still got to make a decision over the goalkeeper for Saturday and it is a very difficult one. We have got two very good goalkeepers and both have got absolutely every reason to be playing.”

Brown ran the rule over Kishimoto during a trial in Wiltshire, but that has now come to an end as he will not be granted a work permit, with another trialist having also linked up with the squad in recent days as the Town boss assess a way to potentially strengthen his options.

“I am going to have to put cold water on the Kishimoto one, which is very unfortunate,” said Brown.

“Without drowning you with stats, he has to have played 75 per cent of the national team games and he is nowhere near that. It was a punt, it was a long shot.

“We have got another lad in. His name will remain in-house at the moment.

“He came to us via a good friend of mine. There are lots of players out there that if we needed to strengthen in any position between the windows, we probably could.”