Cobblers hoping Luke Williams' knee injury is not too serious

Luke Williams in action during the Cobblers' 2-1 loss at Walsall

The Scunthorpe United loan man suffered the injury in the 2-1 defeat at Walsall, and has returned to Glanford Park for treatment.

It is understood that the initial prognosis is that the player won’t need to undergo an operation, although assistant boss Dave Kerslake was cautious about setting any sort of definite date for a return.

“We are are hoping the injury is not as bad as we thought,” said Kerslake of a player who has played just twice for the Cobblers.

“The medics are still erring on the side of caution with him, but hopefully it’s not too serious.”

The injury is to the opposite knee to the one Williams suffered problems with earlier this season.

Meanwhile, Gaby Zakuani and Alex Revell will have their fitness assessed on Friday to see if they are going to be okay to feature in Saturday’s Sky bet League One trip to Southend United.

Revell has been out of action since limping out of the 5-3 defeat at Milton Keynes Dons with a calf strain, while Zakuani hasn’t played since suffering a hamstring strain in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s opening match of the Africa Cup of Nations in mid-January.

“Everybody is okay from Tuesday night,” said Kerslake.

“Gaby and Revs have had a couple of hard days of training, and they were in Wednesday too.

“They had Thursday off, and we will assess them both on Friday.”

Another player close to full fitness is right-back Brendan Moloney, who hasn’t played since damaging his knee in the 1-0 defeat to Peterborough United in November.

“Brendan is coming along nicely, and we would expect him to be fit again within the next week,” said Kerslake.

The Town assistant boss was on media duties this week ahead of the trip to Roots Hall, and he says the fact three key players are nearing fitness is not just great news for him and manager Justin Edinburgh.

“It is a major boost for the team, the supporters, the whole club,” he said.

“You have some serious players coming back there, and with the momentum we have and the way we have gone about our business anyway, to then have them coming back is huge.”