Michael Flynn revealed how down to the bare bones Swindon Town have been with their squad in recent weeks.

Swindon were without eight of their 21 senior players for last weekend’s match against Barrow AFC and Flynn mentioned that even the players that were able to play had been far from 100 per cent, saying after the match that Jake Young had been unable to train in the week leading up to the game.

Ahead of his side taking on Tranmere Rovers this Saturday, Flynn said that the number of injuries had made it difficult for his side to train of late.

He said: “The Christmas schedule is the juggling act and this is where the trust comes in with the players, I would say they are grown men but a lot of them are quite young.

“It is a trust thing in terms of how they rest and recover because we have got a brutal schedule, no different to anyone else, but it is even more difficult with the numbers we have got.

“Our planning is always done in advance, but it is subject to change under certain circumstances.

“For example, last week I think we had four [players] training, so there is not much you can really do apart from individual development plans.

“It is tough, but we have got on with it and the boys have had a smile on their faces this week, they know the last two performances have not been good enough and we want to improve.”

Of those eight players who have been out with various injuries, Flynn did say that there was hope of getting some players back into the squad as early as this weekend.

Another two Town players became unavailable for the visit of Barrow as Tyrese Shade sustained an illness and Frazer Blake-Tracy was out with a hamstring injury to go along with the other long-term absentees within the squad.

He said: “Tyrese comes back into it and Jake Cain is back as well, so there are a couple that are back.

“We are monitoring two others, they are ones that I won’t go into because it is all about the timing of when we select them.

“It is not ideal, but I am not here to make excuses as everybody can see the situation that we are in and it is only us who can get out of it.”