HARRY McKirdy, Anthony Grant, and Ricky Aguiar will all be absent from this weekend’s game against Northampton Town, head coach Ben Garner has confirmed.

McKirdy missed out on facing his former employers, Port Vale on Saturday – a game that Town lost 2-1 – after a thigh problem prevented him from training in the week prior.

Meanwhile, Aguiar was absent from the match-day squad for just the second time this season due to picking up an ankle sprain against Arsenal U21 last Tuesday.

Asked for an update on their whereabouts, it was presumed that both were simply victims of Town’s competitive squad of 23.

However, Garner clarified both have minor injuries but that they should return to the fold sooner rather than later.

He said: “Harry and Ricky are both injured. Harry McKirdy has had a little overload on a quad problem that he's been trying to manage for two or three weeks.

“It hasn't settled down, so we had it looked at this week. It just needs a little bit of rest - he's had a week's rest before Port Vale where he hadn't done anything. Maybe another week – tops – for him.

“Ricky Aguiar had a little sprain on his ankle that he picked up against Arsenal U21 - again, that's days rather than weeks with him. Hopefully, we'll get them back in the squad as quickly as possible.”

Grant is the final member of Town’s squad to definitely miss the trip to Sixfields as he completes a 10-day isolation period following his trip to Costa Rica and Mexico with the Jamaican national team.

The 34-year-old played 87 minutes in the 2-1 defeat to Mexico before featuring for 85 minutes in the 1-1 draw with Costa Rica – the Reggae Boyz’s first point in qualifying.

Now back in the UK but unable to feature for Swindon until the home game against Colchester United on September 25, Garner was ultimately frustrated he will be without a key player for four games.

He said: “Anthony has got to quarantine for a period of time, so he'll miss Northampton next week, but he will be available again after that.

“We didn't want to stand in the player's way, we understand he wants to represent his country, and the pride that him and his family will have in that.

“But it's frustrating in terms of where it was, and the red-list countries involved that mean we're going to effectively miss him for four games in total.

“We'll certainly look at that moving forward in future windows, and we'll assess things from there.”