JACK Stephens will not be featuring for Swindon Town this weekend against Sheffield United.

Stephens is yet to fully recover from the bout of tonsillitis that has ruled him out since he re-signed on loan.

Though the Southampton defender has got over the illness itself, he is still rebuilding the fitness he lost while laid low and looked as if he’d lost weight when in the stands on Tuesday night.

Mark Cooper only had two words for how Stephens was looking for the weekend: “Not good,” he said.

That also means the 20-year-old is likely to miss next Tuesday’s trip to Wales as Town open their Johnstone’s Paint Trophy campaign against Newport.

Anton Rodgers is also unlikely to feature this weekend, with Cooper adding the former Brighton midfielder probably needs a couple of development games to attain match fitness.

That is likely to come in the development game against Oxford United on Tuesday, September 30. Cooper recently his desire to get his fringe players some more game time, he said of the Oxford game: “We’ve got 20-odd players at the minute to it’s important that the boys who aren’t playing get some match minutes under their belts.”

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