Mark Kennedy said that Tariq Uwakwe remains valued at Swindon Town despite a “frustrating” pre-season for the defender.

Since arriving from Crewe Alexandra last summer, the former Chelsea youth player has only managed eight appearances in League Two due to a series of injuries that have seen him sidelined since last October.

Uwakwe was not able to get on the field at all during pre-season, dropping out of the Eastleigh friendly late on with illness, although Kennedy said that he remained part of the group.

He said: “It is really frustrating for him because he has had the most fractured pre-season; he has been off with Covid, I think his mum and dad have been ill, without speaking out of turn, and he has been ill multiple times, actually.

“I have honestly not had a chance to lay eyes on him, through no fault of his own, as has been well documented I have missed quite a lot of pre-season as well. I think we have both been unlucky in that regard.

“I value every person at the club because they are human beings and I have the utmost respect for them.

“The well-being of any player is the most important thing, so I treat every person exactly the same and I treat them all very well.”

Uwakwe does not look to be ready to feature against Crawley Town in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night and Kennedy said ahead of the game that he did not plan on doing much rotation for the match anyway as he looks to banish Town’s wretched record in the competition.

He said: “First and foremost every game is so important, I have not got many games under my belt as a head coach but I have proved in cup competitions how seriously I take them.

“My record in them has been very good and I take the games very seriously because we want to win every game, it is very important to the club.

“We don’t have a squad of 30 players, so I am not going to make 11 changes, we are going to field a team that will represent the club and make them proud.

“Sometimes you can put people in an environment where it can be detrimental to their development to chuck them in at the deep end.

“There are lots of things to think of but we will absolutely 100 per cent be putting a team out to win the game.”