Swindon Town defender Tom Clayton is likely to miss the remainder of the season following a setback in his recovery from injury.

Clayton has had his season massively curtailed by a thigh injury that he suffered during a pre-season friendly against Swansea City, which saw him miss the first two months of the campaign.

He has only managed 105 minutes of football all season as he returned from injury against Newport County and started against MK Dons, but then suffered another setback that has seen him unable to feature since.

Injury also disrupted Clayton during the previous season, missing three months in the middle of the season between November and February.

Then manager Michael Flynn was very confident in late December that Clayton would be able to make a return around the Wrexham AFC game but then exacerbated his problem once again and was pronounced to be sidelined for an additional ten to 12 weeks.

Gavin Gunning has said that Clayton had returned to running ahead of potentially getting back fit again in time for the end of the season, but that now appears not to be possible after yet another setback.

He said: “Tom Clayton has had a setback, so he is going to be out again, which is very negative news.

“[Will he be out for the season?] It looks likely, yes.”

His fellow long-term absentee since the Swansea match is Reece Devine, who has not played any part in the season due to a hamstring problem that has plagued his entire two seasons with the club, having only managed 53 league minutes last term against Leyton Orient as he dealt with hamstring issues.

Given his history with injuries, Swindon have been careful with his recovery and made sure not to rush him at any point and ensure that he was fully recovered before he gained any involvement, and he is continuing to make positive developments.

Gunning revealed that after a few weeks of getting back to running, he has begun to train with the team and there is optimism that he will be able to feature before the season, and his contract, ends.

He said: “Reece Devine trained today, so obviously that is positive news.

“I am not quite sure on [how long he will be], hopefully, it will be a couple of weeks and we will see him play some minutes before the end of the season.”