SWINDON Town are looking at three potential options to fill the void created by Brad Smith’s return to Liverpool - with the intention of bringing them on board prior to the weekend trip to Crawley Town.

Smith, who only joined Town on a youth loan last week, is back at his parent club for assessment after sustaining a grade one medial ligament strain during the 2-1 victory at Luton Town in the Capital One Cup on Tuesday night.

Having pursued the left-back for most of the summer, the injury is a major blow to Robins manager Mark Cooper and owner Lee Power, who are trying to draft in a new recruit as soon as possible.

When asked by the Advertiser if one specific player had been targeted, Cooper said: “Not just one - there’s two or three. If you get your hopes up about one you can get let down, so we’ve spoken about two or three different players.

“If we’re going to do it, we’ll do it before Saturday.”

Cooper is reluctant to move Nathan Byrne, Swindon’s shining light, back to the left of his midfield three for the visit to the Broadfield Stadium tomorrow, while he has ruled out the possibility of recalling Matty Jones from his loan spell at Wantage Town.

He said: “I think he (Byrne) will stay on the right. I think he’s been that good - he’s arguably been our best player and most productive player in terms of attacking threat - that I think it would be silly really to put him back on the left. It would send the wrong message out to Nathan. He’ll stay there.”

Meanwhile, Louis Thompson is a major doubt for the weekend after sustaining a dead leg at Luton and Anton Rodgers has been ruled out for a fortnight with a knee problem.

That means Ben Gladwin is likely to drop back into the midfield three alongside Yaser Kasim and Massimo Luongo this weekend, with Andy Williams partnering Michael Smith up front.

Jack Barthram and Jordan Turnbull both had to have stitches in head wounds at Luton but the pair are fit for the game against Crawley.

“They’ll both be fine. They’re glued up and we’ve sorted them out,” Cooper said.

“I thought Turnbull was very good the other night and we can see why he’s so highly thought of at Southampton.”

Finally, Swindon won’t be cashing in from Sean Morrison’s proposed switch from Reading to Cardiff City.

The defender commanded a £250,000 transfer fee when he moved to the Madejski Stadium from the County Ground in 2011 but a source told the Advertiser yesterday that “there is nothing in Sean’s contract which would benefit Swindon any more”.