SWINDON Town manager Richie Wellens has alleviated fears over Jordan Lyden’s potential absence, even stating the midfielder could return as early as next weekend.

In his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s League Two clash at home to Oldham Athletic – which Town won 2-0 – Wellens revealed his squad had been struck by a significant injury.

The Town boss did not disclose which player was affected at the time but upon the release of his team sheet an hour before kick-off against the Latics, Lyden was revealed to be the unfortunate man to miss out.

However, speaking post-match at the County Ground, Wellens stated that Lyden’s problem was a merely a minor quadricep injury, and that he could even be back in contention for selection for next weekend’s trip to local rivals Forest Green Rovers.

“Jordan has just tweaked his quad, so I am hoping he will be back for the Forest Green game,” said Wellens.

“It is just one of those things. It was a little nick in training, and I think he was going to be out for 10 days at the time he did it on Tuesday.

“It will all depend on how quickly he recovers.

“He is one of the most significant losses. He can do everything. He can run, he can tackle, he can pass, his angles when he shows for the ball are really good.

“We haven’t had to change anything for probably five or six weeks but we had to really work at something this week once we knew Jordan was going to be missing.”

Town may have comfortably overcome Oldham to make it seven League Two wins on the bounce and retain their place at the top of the table, but Wellens felt there was plenty of room for improvement from his side’s performance at the weekend.

Swindon were slow out of the blocks and the Latics had the better of the first quarter of the game but failed to take advantage on the scoreboard.

Wellens admitted his team took a while to adjust following the enforced change in their set-up, although he was pleased with the measure of control they were able to display once they got to grips with it.

“We just didn’t grasp it,” said Wellens.

“I have never liked 4-4-2. I don’t mind it when I have Lloyd Isgrove and Keshi Anderson playing wide because they are clever players and they come in and we can move teams around.

“Maybe the first 20 minutes was my fault but after that, although we didn’t control the game, we were always comfortable and always a threat when we broke or got the ball.

“We could have had five or six goals.”