Ollie Clarke is set to miss Swindon Town’s trip to Accrington Stanley and possibly a crucial period of the season after twisting his ankle.

Swindon enter what could be a pivotal spell of games in their season as they visit 18th-place Accrington this Saturday, before welcoming basement boys Morecambe to The Nigel Eady County Ground next weekend, then visiting 21st-place Colchester United the other side of the FA Cup Second Round.

They will be playing at least one of those games without captain Clarke after he was revealed to be a casualty of the week’s training, which Ian Holloway said had otherwise been a positive seven days for the squad.

However, Clarke joined Grant Hall on the unavailable list for the game after he sustained an ankle injury in training which will require a scan for a sense of its severity.

Holloway said: “I am very pleased with this week but unfortunately we had one problem as Ollie, our captain, has rolled his ankle.

“He has twisted his ankle really badly so he has got to have a scan later on today. Not good. But hopefully, it won’t be for too long.

“It is what it is, you can be frustrated by life but I believe my lads are lucky.”

Holloway felt that it had otherwise been a strong week at Beversbrook, with the players having completed his infamous run to prove their fitness and getting a good result against Bristol Rovers in a behind-closed-doors friendly.

He said: “We won 2-0 but it was the way we went about it [that pleased me], we were high press, high energy, good passing, and good movements.

“I enjoyed our identity and thought ‘Wow, they can do it and we will do it.’

“I have seen them all run now, they have done my run so I can balance it up with where I think they are, who needs this, who needs that for that what I want.

“I will be working closely with the sports scientists to say ‘This fella needs this to get up here’ or ‘I can play him because he can do that distance and recover quickly.’

“It won’t be massive changes everywhere but it is about what we are doing every day to give the lads confidence moving forward and find a style that suits them.

“I am looking forward to this game and I have been very pleased with this week.”