Ian Holloway has ruled out a sale of Swindon Town star Joel McGregor this month after his fine form during his first full season as a professional.
McGregor has been the revelation of the season at The Nigel Eady County Ground having been one of Town’s star performers ever since coming on during the first half against Tranmere Rovers at the start of October.
The 18-year-old has made 13 appearances in League Two this season and scored his first league goal against Cheltenham Town before then scoring the equaliser as Town knocked Colchester United out of the FA Cup after extra time.
Despite some talk to the contrary, Holloway was steadfast that McGregor would not be leaving the club in January.
He said: “We will not push them [Harrison Minturn and McGregor] back but just to clarify it is not because one of them is going to be sold.
“Just to get that out there because Callum [Knowles, Media Executive] looks at this stuff and tells me about the madness that is going on everywhere and at the end of the day I will tell you what I know and I know that he is not being sold.
“McGregor is not being sold, so I do not know what all of this nonsense is about.
“I find it very difficult to understand that when someone is injured, everyone is speculating that he is not injured for real and we are going to sell him.
“I would tell you if he was not injured and I would tell you if I was going to sell him and I would tell you why I was going to sell him.
“It wouldn’t be your chairman [Clem Morfuni] that was selling him, it would be me to try and bring someone else in or try and do something else.
“Poor old Joel is injured and he doesn’t want to be injured but people are saying that he is going to be sold.”
However, McGregor’s return to the Swindon team, along with fellow homegrown defender Minturn, is still a while away as they are both suffering with groin inflammation.
Holloway said: “They are with the physios as they have both got the same injury; the injury is not very worrying, it is a thing that is a weakness and is a strain.
“You would rather have a pull or a tear as you can guess how long that is going to be but I can assure you that they are both still injured.
“We will get them back as quickly as we can but also as sensibly as we can; I would love them to both be fit now as it would save me the other problem that I have got four others on the watchlist from the last game.
“They are making good progress but they cannot do it any quicker than it is going to be.
“We have got to strengthen that weakness so that it doesn’t happen again, so we are not going to push them back.”
