Ethan Laird, on loan from Manchester United, and Kyle Naughton are both expected to return for the Swans this weekend when we look to halt a run of three straight league defeats with a trip to promotion chasing QPR.

The Swans own push for the play off positions has stuttered in recent weeks with defeats against Reading, Middlesboro and Nottingham Forest and Russell Martin will be looking for that run to end this weekend as he faces up to the first of successive away games in London.

Martin’s strategy on Saturday was not helped with the loss of Kyle Naughton before the game – he missed out due to a family member coming down with Covid – and the loss on half time of wing back Ethan Laird who was taken off as the game headed into first half stoppage time.

Both though are expected to return this weekend for the visit to the Kian Prince Foundation Stadium.

“We lost a big part of our team in Kyle. He’ll be back early next week,” said Martin after the game.

Ethan was a loss when he came off, but Joel Latibeaudiere is learning a new position.

“It’s a bit too early to tell. I think it’s more of a precautionary one rather than it being a really bad one.

“I think he felt something so he wanted to make sure it was OK.

“We’ve had to shuffle the pack a lot. We got into a good rhythm in terms of team selection, but that’s not been the case recently.”

The game against QPR is scheduled for Saturday however, their game tonight against Sheffield United has been postponed due to a Covid outbreak in their squad which has casted some doubt over the weekend fixture going ahead.

By Phil Sumbler

Been watching the Swans since the very late 1970s and running the Planet Swans website (in all its current and previous guises since the summer of 2001 As it stood JackArmy.net was right at the forefront of some of the activity against Tony Petty back in 2001, breaking many of the stories of the day as fans stood against the actions where the local media failed. Was involved with the Swans Supporters Trust from 2005, for the large part as Chairman before standing down in the summer of 2020.