Swindon Town will have to continue to nurse Harry McKirdy back to full fitness following his deadline day arrival from Hibernian.

McKirdy returned on loan to the County Ground, five months after a successful heart surgery that saw him side-lined until January of this season.

Having made two substitute appearances of around 25 minutes for Swindon so far, Gavin Gunning said that he would continue to be careful with the forward as he returns to full fitness.

Gunning said: “He can play maybe 20 minutes and that is about it, he might get as many as 25 minutes.

“I have to mix and match the options because some of them can’t play longer minutes, so I haven’t really got a choice.

“You are trying to get them fit on the job.”

“It has been slow, and I am far from over it,” said McKirdy about his recovery on the Life of a Kitman podcast, “There is still a long way to go, but I am in what I would call the fun side of it now.

“I am training, I have not trained lots, but I am starting to complete the majority of sessions, not all of it, and I am back on the pitch.

“I played 20 minutes on Saturday [against Newport County] and I woke up on Monday and I am still in bits, I just need to accept it because it could have been a lot worse.”

Rushian Hepburn-Murphy is another who could be limited during Tuesday night's clash with Gillingham, as Gunning said he was being monitored after picking up a knock.

Paul Glatzel has been working up his fitness after arriving in January having played limited first-team football since a second hamstring injury whilst playing for Tranmere Rovers.

Gunning said that he has been very impressed with how the German youth international has responded to diving back into senior football and the fitness he has demonstrated.

He said: “He [Glatzel] is a machine, the distance that he has covered is a joke, to be fair to him.

“I don’t want to jinx him obviously, touch wood, but I would imagine he was just unlucky, I would imagine his knee injury was a freak thing and his hamstring came from that.

“When I see him training and the way he looks after himself, it is not through lack of dedication or anything like that, he is top-notch.”