Harrison Minturn still has a way to go in his recovery from a groin injury that has seen him out of action at Swindon Town since December.
Ahead of Swindon’s Vertu Trophy victory over Wycombe Wanderers late last year, Minturn limped out of training with what Ian Holloway initially feared could be a Gilmore’s Groin issue as he could not sprint and felt sore.
Town soon discovered that the young defender would not require surgery for his issue as it was just swelling, but the road to recovery has been a difficult one.
The 21-year-old’s last appearance saw him get an assist as Swindon defeated Fleetwood Town 3-1 courtesy of a Harry Smith hat-trick.
Joel McGregor, who suffered a similar issue not long after, was able to make his return to action off the bench against Port Vale at the weekend, although Minturn will have to wait longer.
Holloway said: “He has had an injection to try and help the process but he didn’t make the same progress as Joel and his was slightly worse.
“He has had an injection to try and get rid of the inflammation in that area, the groin is not an easy place to have a problem as everything you do as a footballer is all related to the core.
“It is not good for a young man to have that so hopefully he can get better.
“I had two Gilmore’s Groin operations and it was absolutely horrendous, having your inguinal ring sewn back together is not fun and it takes six to eight weeks.
“He hasn’t had to have that, it was just an injection and even that is not nice.
“There is no way you can play through it as you lose all sorts of power, hopefully, the injection will sort that out.”
Despite the difficulty in recovery from Minturn’s issue, Swindon expect him to return to playing this season, even if that will not be for another few weeks.
He said: “There is hope that he will come back before the end of the season but he is definitely further back than Joel is.
“Joel has had two weeks on the grass and has had no adverse response to his twisting and turning and that is what could have gone wrong.
“We might be another five or six weeks away from seeing where Harrison is and hopefully he can come back at a very interesting time of the season.”
