Town could field 13-man squad at Colchester (From Swindon Advertiser)

SWINDON TOWN: Town could field 13-man squad at Colchester

4:00pm Monday 4th February 2013 in Sport By Sam Morshead

SWINDON Town could travel to Colchester tomorrow with as few as 13 fit players, manager Paolo Di Canio has revealed.

Following the return of Chris Martin to his parent club Norwich at the culmination of his loan spell in Wiltshire, Di Canio's options are severely limited at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

Joe Devera and Miles Storey are out with hamstring problems, Troy Archibald-Henville is recovering from a knee operation, Louis Thompson has a minor knock, Aaron Oakley is on international duty with Wales Under 21s while a further unnamed player is facing a late fitness test.

Di Canio has ruled out the possibility of taking Luke Rooney or Lee Cox with him to Essex, while he does not want to blood any further members of the youth team squad.

“On Saturday we travelled with 17 players. One or two are not really completely ready for the game - Jay (McEveely) for example was the first game and he had difficulty with the game but this is natural. We saw it with Tommy Miller when he came back from his injury," said Di Canio.

“Tomorrow it will be even worse. We will travel with 14. A team five points from the top will be travelling with 14 tomorrow. We know when it happened to another club, at the County Ground - Portsmouth. You know how they were in big problems.

“Now a club who is close to the top on Saturday traveled with 17, with a kid not really fit and four players with a virus.

“Now we are going to travel with 14, with some problems with a player who will go on the bench. That is our situation and we know who we have to thank.

“I hope we have 14 because there is a possibility that there will be 13. We have some little problems but I can’t have many options so I have to hope my players are ready to play even with some problems."