Tate ruled out of Blackpool clash

Tate had been confident of overcoming the problem

Swansea City captain Alan Tate will be kept out of Saturday's potential play-off decider with Blackpool in Swansea because of his eye injury.

The defender was kicked in the eye in Saturday's late win over Carlisle, that kept Swansea in contention for a top six spot, and still has blurred vision.

Tom Butler (broken toe) is out for two to three weeks, but Marcos Painter has resumed training after a bruised knee.

Earlier in the week, Tate had been confident of overcoming the problem.

"One of the Carlisle players went for an overhead kick. I could see it coming, but I had to put my head in there because he was inside the box with a good chance of scoring," said Tate.

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"But it was worth it to come away with the three points and keep things going for the final game against Blackpool."

The Swans need to win at the Liberty Stadium and hope Oldham slip up against Chesterfield to extend their season.

Roberto Martinez's side are expecting a near-capacity crowd of around 19,000, Swansea having sold out their allocation of tickets but Blackpool only expected to sell about 1,000 of their 2,000.

Oldham remain in the final play-off place on goal difference after beating Brighton 2-1 away on Saturday to end a four-game run without a win.

"If I'm honest, we thought Brighton would get something against Oldham to put it in our own hands on Saturday," Tate, who needed stitches on his right eye, told the Swansea website.

"But it didn't turn out that way and now we've got to look over our shoulder at the Oldham result.

"You would expect Oldham to beat Chesterfield, so it could come down to how many goals we can score against a Blackpool side that have plenty to play for themselves with automatic promotion up for grabs.

"It was never going to be easy anyway because Blackpool are a good side, but we've got nothing to lose.

"We've had some big wins at the Liberty over the past two seasons, beating the likes of Bristol City 7-1 and Carlisle 5-0, so perhaps we'll have to produce something special again.

"Saying that, who's to say that Oldham won't slip up. I'm sure the supporters will be letting us know how they are getting on during the game."