Botan Ameen could be an option for Swindon Town to replace Aaron Drinan after the forward sustained a season-ending knee injury.
Drinan suffered a Posterior Cruciate Ligament injury which will see him miss the final 13 games of the League Two season.
Although he is still part of Sean Wood’s under-18s set-up, Ameen has been a frequent member of matchday squads with the senior side this season, making his league debut at Cheltenham Town and has been used off the bench twice more since then.
In the absence of the natural pace which Drinan provides, Ian Holloway said that he could turn to the Iraq Under-20 international to help make up for that.
He said: “We have lost a bit of penetration down the side without Aaron, that is what he naturally does, and if you look at Port Vale as an example, he got us that second goal and at Newport [County] he went down that side with Tunmise [Sobowale].
“It has been a common thing for us, even at Notts County he was driving in behind them all the time, but we have lost that as we don’t have anyone like that apart from Botan Ameen.
“He has been training with us and done really well, so I have a few things to think about.
“He [Drinan] runs away from people and he is so quick and so strong and we probably haven’t got that in anyone else.
“Only Botan can face you up with the ball at his feet and wiggle and get past you. It is absolutely vital to have in the way that I want to play.”
Ameen was not the only academy player who was singled out for praise, Holloway said that Miles Obodo had been impressing him.
The striker, who made his debut against Bradford City at 16, is currently on loan at Marlow but has caught the eye in training.
He said: “We don’t have anyone else who runs in behind, everyone else wants it to feet, [Danny] Butterworth, [Joel] Cotterill, everybody.
“No one is a natural runner away so we will have to look at that and practice things like we have been.
“Who is to say that by the end of the season, someone else won’t have claimed that as their own, we have young Miles who has come up and trained with us and he looks like he can run in behind people.
“He is more of a centre forward but he has excited me this week.”
