SWINDON Town may be forced into changing a winning formula for their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy clash with Newport this evening.

A combination of injuries and suspension leaves Mark Cooper with only two fully fit central midfielders, Massimo Luongo being a doubt having had stitches for the wound he received earning the penalty against Sheffield United on Saturday.

His midfield colleague Yaser Kasim is banned having already accrued five yellow cards this season, Anton Rodgers is not yet match fit and Ben Gladwin has a longer-term ankle injury.

That leaves only Louis Thompson and Jake Reeves from the recognised first team midfield unit.

Cooper admitted that should Luongo not be able to play he would consider changing the shape of the midfield, with only youth teamers Lee Marshall and Tom Smith as cover in central positions.

“We’ve got Louis and Jake, so we’re not resting or rotating – you’re looking at who has had that many minutes and who is at risk of getting an injury for Barnsley, which is another big game for us,” Cooper said.

“We might have to change the shape, or we might change how many we play in midfield, because we physically might not have the bodies, or we might have to bring somebody up from the youth team.

“We won’t change the three at the back but we might change the three in midfield.”