Michael Flynn said that he could be forced to ask some academy players to feature in games on back-to-back days this weekend.

Prior to Swindon Town facing automatic promotion chasing Barrow AFC at the County Ground on Saturday, the under-18s face an FA Youth Cup Third Round tie at Luton Town at Kenilworth Road on Friday evening hoping to set up a home tie with either Manchester United or Derby County.

Flynn has been forced to use multiple youth players on the bench for first-team games often this season due to a small squad blighted by injuries and the managed hinted that he would likely have to do the same again this weekend despite the under-18s playing the night before.

He said: “Whether or not they [the academy players] are involved, I still might have to include some on the bench tomorrow or more.

“I have spoken at length with Jamie Russell on it in terms of who is starting [against Luton] and who is not, so we are ahead of the curve in that respect. But obviously, it is not ideal.

“Potentially [they might be involved in both games]. That is where we are at.

“If somebody is starting tonight, they won’t be starting for us tomorrow, that is for sure, it is nothing silly like that.

“There are two that I know that are not starting tonight, so they will most likely be involved with us because we haven’t got anything else.

“We have a long injury list, and it is really going to bite us for the next six games, it is a tough scenario and there are no excuses, it is just where we are at.”

The academy players are continuing to fill in as, despite being hopeful ahead of facing AFC Wimbledon last weekend that he might have some players returning from injury, Swindon are going to continue being without multiple first-team players.

He said: “There are not many that are going to return, if any.

“We are waiting on one or maybe two, but with the situation we are going into with these games we can’t afford to rush them because of the number of games we have in a small space of time.

“We know that we are light and are short on numbers, but we have got to get on with it and do the best we can with these circumstances.”