Laudrup confident wounded Swans can cope

13 September 2012 16:52

Swansea manager Michael Laudrup is backing his side to cope with their defensive injury problems when they face Aston Villa this weekend.

Left-back Neil Taylor suffered a broken ankle in the 2-2 draw with Sunderland that will rule him out for the rest of the season, while centre-half Chico Flores was shown a straight red card and misses the next three games. This week the club also lost Kyle Bartley for around three months with a ruptured quad.

But Laudrup believes his side have the strength to manage. He said: "We have a squad and we have prepared them to play from the beginning, we did not think about serious injuries at that time but we are covered, we have players."

The Swans, who have made an excellent start to the Barclays Premier League season to lie second in the table after taking two wins and a draw, have brought in free agent Dwight Tiendalli to provide cover for young Ben Davies at left-back, while Alan Tate is set to partner Ashley Williams in central defence, although there will be no specialist replacement on the bench.

Laudrup added: "It has been a bad couple of weeks. We all remember what happened to Neil and after that we have had another injury, not as serious, but a very difficult and rare muscle injury for Kyle.

"Then of course we have Chico suspended for three matches. It's typical, to lose three defenders like this.

"Dwight is coming in to cover left-back so we don't only have Ben for the rest of the season and I think we are covered."

It was a difficult international period for some of the Swansea squad. Ashley Williams played in Wales' 6-1 hammering in Serbia, with Ben Davies and Jazz Richards on the bench, while striker Itay Shechter was part of Israel's 4-0 defeat to Russia.

But Laudrup expects his players to suffer no hangover.

He said: "We have players coming back from very different results, but now they are here and back in the group, hopefully they will recover so they are fit mentally for the game Saturday."

Source: PA