DAVID Flitcroft hopes Swindon Town striker Luke Norris can recover from his shoulder injury without the need for surgery after conceding that lesser players may have already gone under the knife in an effort to resolve the issue.

Norris, who is Town’s top scorer this season with eight goals in all competitions, has dislocated his shoulder twice since the start of the campaign and appeared to aggravate the area during Swindon’s 1-0 defeat at home to Lincoln City last Tuesday.

The 24-year-old subsequently underwent an extensive assessment on the damaged area and was ruled out of the 1-0 victory at home to Wycombe Wanderers at the weekend as a result.

Although Town boss Flitcroft is unable to say how much of the team’s upcoming League Two programme Norris may miss, he is just glad that it appears to be able to be rectified without the need for an operation.

“He saw a specialist up in Manchester and it is not going to be surgery at the moment,” said Flitcroft.

“We have got some work that we need to do with him for his shoulder. We have ordered a brace and now we have got to a point where we finally have a course of action.

“A lesser player probably would have had an operation and got it done. We are hoping that by doing certain exercises and stretching in a programme, we can build the strength around it again and protect it with a brace.

“I can’t put a timeframe on it. It’s how he reacts and responds to the programme.”

Norris’ absence this weekend was offset by the return of Harry Smith, who marked his Town comeback with the winning goal against Wycombe.

The on-loan Millwall striker has been back at his parent club over the past fortnight to deal with personal issues but reported back to training with Swindon last Wednesday.

Although Flitcroft says those private matters are ongoing, the Town boss was thrilled with Smith.

“They are going to be ongoing, his dad has been poorly from the outset,” explained Flitcroft. “He is a young boy and because he is six-foot-seven, we all think he is this man with 200 games under his belt but he is not.

“We have supported him and Millwall have been fantastic. We have worked on it together to make sure Harry was in a good place mentally. I thought he was excellent (on Saturday), I am delighted for him.”