MARK Cooper is looking forward to welcoming three “new signings” into his Swindon Town squad in the new year, although their names will be very familiar to fans of the Robins.

Tijane Reis, Alex Smith and Troy Archibald-Henville are all on course for a return to match action in January, according to the Town manager, after lengthy periods out of the game through injury.

The trio have all had operations this season in an effort to rectify a variety of leg and knee problems but they have been hitting the gym hard in recent weeks, and Cooper thinks their comebacks will feel like new additions to his squad as and when they become available once again.

“I think he (Reis) is probably three weeks from actually joining match training. I still think it will be until January for him to get himself really fit and then the biggest thing for him and probably the hardest problem for him will be trying to get back in the team,” Cooper told the Advertiser.

“We’ve got some good attacking players so that’s a good situation for me because it pushes him and it pushes the rest of the players.

“Troy is probably on a similar timescale and Alex Smith as well. They’re all on a similar timescale, they’re all trying to outdo each other in the gym and if we get them three back then we’ll have a very strong squad.”

Meanwhile, Cooper stressed that there is no urgency to review Dany N’Guessan’s contract at the County Ground, despite the striker’s rich vein of form in front of goal.

N’Guessan, who has netted eight goals in 18 games since arriving in Wiltshire from Millwall in the summer, has a one-year contract with Swindon but Cooper said the club are not in a position to discuss any possible extension just yet.

“We’ve got a long way to go, a lot of games, we don’t know what league we’re going to be in so things could change. It’s not something I think either party at the minute are rushing for,” said the Town boss.

“I’m sure that if Dany keeps scoring goals he won’t want to be in a rush to sign a contract.”