Sean McGurk and Ryan Delaney are back in training at Swindon Town ahead of their first home game of the season against Walsall.

Swindon picked up a draw on the opening weekend away from home against title favourites Chesterfield before conceding a late double to crash out of the Carabao Cup at Crawley Town in midweek.

So far this season, Mark Kennedy has been without experienced defender Ryan Delaney since his summer arrival from Newport County, he missed all of pre-season as he continues his recovery from a season-ending knee injury from February.

 

 

Marcus Bignot said before the start of the season that he had suffered a slight setback that would see him miss the start of the season.

But Kennedy has now said that Delaney has begun to return to training although he is not yet a full participant in the sessions.

He said: “Ryan is in load-compromised training, so everything he does is non-contact and he did a couple of bounce things today. He is a little bit behind [McGurk].”

McGurk himself has been missing since the first game of pre-season when he played 45 minutes against Swindon Supermarine as he has been dealing with a hip flexor injury.

Three weeks ago, Bignot said that McGurk had had a reoccurrence of that injury which meant he had not been able to get back involved.

However, Kennedy said that he had now started to get back into full training as he gets closer to the fold.

He said: “Sean trained fully today, in terms of he took part in the whole session, but we used him as a bounce player, which is almost like a non-contact player.

“But it was great to have him back because he has had a frustrating time and he is a talented young man, as you will all know.

“He never told us but turned up in the dressing room at Chesterfield and at Crawley, so he has great characteristics as a person and is highly rated as a player.”

Pharrell Johnson has not been on the bench for either of Swindon’s two games so far, leading some to wonder whether he was injured, but Kennedy was quick to assuage those fears.

He said: “He is available but we have got a lot of players at the minute. Pharrell has had a really good pre-season and is someone who we rate very highly and has a big future ahead of him.”