SWINDON Town manager Martin Ling faces a selection issue of unusual sorts ahead of this weekend’s trip to Fleetwood Town.

The County Ground side have spent the majority of the season with an injury list longer than those being written by children to Santa as we speak, Ling now faces a different line-up headache.

With the number of ailments subsiding, the County Ground boss will have to decide who to leave out of the matchday squad all together.

The club used the loan market to fill the holes that appeared in the squad, but with players now returning, Town now have a surplus.

With Louis Thompson returning from international duty unscathed, an unused substitute in Wales under 21s’ 1-1 draw with Romania, Town now have six fit loan players, with league rules stipulating that only five can appear in any matchday squad.

That means that Ling will have to leave out either the Norwich loanee or one of Lawrence Vigouroux, Jordan Turnbull, Adam El-Abd, Ben Gladwin and Wes Thomas.

With no other centre backs available, Jordan Williams and Nathan Thompson both still out injured, it looks unlikely that either Turnbull or El-Abd will get dropped if Ling goes with the same formation as he did in Saturday’s win over Scunthorpe United.

Liverpool loanee Vigouroux has been a mainstay in between the sticks for Swindon this season, only missing Colchester United and Doncaster Rovers in the league in the aftermath of ‘pennygate’.

And with Ben Gladwin named in the Football League team of the week for his display against Scunthorpe, it is unlikely that the on-loan QPR midfielder will be making way.

That leaves the decision between returning striker Thomas, who made a cameo appearance on Saturday, and Thompson.

However, Ling says the decision is not something that will cause him anxiety and is sure whoever he picks will help continue Swindon’s turn in form.

“We’ve got a problem (on Saturday),” he told the local media. “If Louis Thompson comes back fit then we’ve got six loan players, we can only pick five of them.

“How we work that one out I’m not going to worry about at this moment in time, but I’m sure we’ll have to cope with it."