treatment on his injured leg, with his club saying they don't know what the future has in store for him.

Lightbourne is part-way through a month's loan at Second Division rivals Swindon Town but a mixture of bad luck and bad weather has put paid to any chance of the club taking a serious look at him.

His first game against Port Vale came just hours after he had agreed to move to the Wiltshire club and ended in a 1-0 defeat.

Two other matches were postponed because of the weather conditions and when Swindon did manage a run-out in the League against Bury the Bermudian was flattened by a challenge in the first five minutes and limped off less than halfway through the first half. Swindon went on to win 3-0.

Lightbourne has now returned to the Potteries for treatment on his injured thigh, but hopes to be in the reckoning when Swindon take on Wrexham on Sunday.

Stoke City's Football Executive John Rudge said: "We don't know what will happen next with Kyle.

"He's not had much luck at Swindon -- his first game against Port Vale ended in defeat, then they had a couple of games postponed and he only played 20 minutes on Saturday, so he hasn't really had a chance to show them his best.'' Lightbourne was transfer-listed by Stoke just before Christmas when competition for places became too hot. Ironically, Swindon too now have a plethora of strikers to choose from having brought in both Lightbourne and Sunderland frontman Michael Reddy on loan in a bid to avoid the drop.

The Islander's stay at the County Ground runs until February 13, although it is feasible in view of events that he might be asked to stay longer.

COUPER WINS INDOOR GOLD ATH Couper wins indoor gold Brian Wellman was not the only Bermudian to come away with a chunk of hardware at the recent Razorback Invitational meet, with Ashley Couper snaring not one but two first place finishes at the indoor meet.

Couper, representing Stanford University, was part of the winning 4x800 metres relay team, clocking two minutes, nine seconds for her leg, a personal best.

Returning for the distance medley, Couper again clocked a best ever time, crossing in 3:28 for the rarely run 1200 metres. Again the Cardinals emerged on top, holding off sister squad Stanford `B' while posting an overall time of 11:19.06.

Wellman, as previously reported, won the triple jump while Devon Bean finished fourth in his 60 metres heat.