Michael Flynn believes signings will be pivotal for Swindon Town dealing with injuries

Michael Flynn believes that he will need a bigger squad to help him to deal with a frantic League Two season. Total Sport’s Joe Acklam spoke to the Swindon Town manager ahead of their trip to Forest Green Rovers.

Swindon have brought in eight players so far during the transfer window but have also sustained five injuries of varying degrees of severity in the opening weeks of the season.

Flynn said that with the number of matches being played in quick succession this season that he will need to bring in more players to deal with the inevitable injury issues.

He said: “I am hopeful [of bringing in new players], but I am not down the line with anybody at the minute.

“That is as much as I know and as far as I can go into it, but I am still looking to add more players.

“I think it is crucial [to bring in more players] because it is a gruelling season, we have two away games now and with Colchester it would have been three already, Peterborough makes it four.

“It is gruelling, we are picking up little injuries, like niggles or impact injuries, and we have had a few illnesses and still then the likes of [Benn] Ward has come in and had a back spasm after ten minutes, so he was struggling.

“Tariq [Uwakwe] is not up to full fitness and neither is Jake Young.

“So, there are things we need to get into them, but when you are playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday it is quite tough.”

On top of the volume of games being played, new guidelines are seeing longer matches, and Flynn believes this will lead to even more injuries than normal.

He said: “I think you will [have to rotate more], I think the proof will be in the pudding at the end of the season.

“If you are playing on average an extra 16 minutes a game and if you work that over the course of the season [it will be a lot more].

“We are supposed to be looking after the players, not putting them at further risk of injuries and I think there will be a big spike in injuries this season.

“With it being the first season, you are not going to get a really accurate report from that, but I think over the coming years that will cause a problem with fitness.

“I am not the rule maker, maybe something like in rugby would have been better where the clock just stops instead of just adding on for the sake of it.

“I think it does [favour teams with bigger squad] 100%, there are small advantages, but we have to believe that our playing style and togetherness is also an advantage.”